Analysis of swell near the island of Aruba

Abstract

Intermittently during the winter, swell and associated breakers appear along a beach on the lee side of Aruba, an island lying off the coast of Venezuela in the Trade Winds. It has been hypothesized that 14- to 15-sec waves, generated by winter storms off the mid-Atlantic coast of North America, propagate southward to Mona Passage, where they are refracted. They then propagate across the Caribbean Sea toward Aruba, where they are refracted off the northwest tip of the island and arrive at the beach on the leeward coast. Measurements of swell off this beach were conducted during March 1969. Spectra and directions of travel were computed from these measurements, and probable swell generation areas were located. Reasonable agreement is found between swell periods and directions computed from field measurements and those deduced from wave ray patterns. All evidence obtained is consistent with the hypothesis of a North Atlantic generation area.