Similarity of the wind wave spectrum in finite depth water: 1. Spectral form

Abstract

A self‐similar spectral shape (the TMA spectrum) to describe wind waves in water of finite depth is presented. The parametric spectral form is depth dependent and an extension of the deep water JONSWAP spectrum. The behavior of the spectrum in frequency and wave number space is discussed. About 2800 spectra selected from three data sets (TEXEL storm, MARSEN, ARSLOE) are investigated to show the general validity of the proposal self‐similar spectral shape.