Part of the book: Remote Sensing
This paper discusses a shallow-water wave height measurement method that uses high definition video cameras to image a water surface wave patch. Wave height time series are extracted from water surface video sequences. Wave features such as the wavelength distribution and energy contained in a wave patch (W/m2) were obtained by analyzing the extracted wave height time series and expressing the wind-driven wave energy as a wave energy spectrum. A Weibull probability distribution was used as the mathematical form of the energy spectrum. Wave spectra are used as input to a wave patch simulation model that generates simulated wind-driven wave images. The measurement protocol is inexpensive, easy to implement, and useful to calibrate and validate wind-driven wave models. The protocol is used to understand resuspension of bottom muds due to wind waves in shallow waters. Scaled staff gauges made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) materials are placed in shallow water and imaged at 30 Hz followed by frame based image analysis to extract wave height time series. Wave spectra calculated using the fast Fourier transform (FFT) results in a Weibull probability distribution function (WPDF) energy spectrum. The estimated wave spectrum is used to estimate wave energy in W/m2 followed by generation of wave patch simulations of the water surface. Simulated wave patches are compared with the sensor-based wave patch video measurements. Sensitivity analysis of coefficients α and β in the model are used to adjust the synthetic wave images to measured wave patch images. The approach allows one to obtain an estimate of the energy (W/m2) transferred from the local wind field to a water surface gravity wave patch.
Part of the book: Surface Waves