Long-Term Statistics and Extreme Waves of Sea Storms

Abstract

A stochastic model of sea storms for describing long-term statistics of extreme wave events is presented. The formulation generalizes Boccotti?s equivalent triangular storm model by describing an actual storm history in the form of a generic power law. The latter permits the derivation of analytical solutions for the return periods of extreme wave events and associated statistical properties. Lastly, the relative validity of the new model and its predictions is assessed by analyzing wave measurements retrieved from two NOAA National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) buoys in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.