Wind and wave climatology of the Mediterranean Sea.: Part II:: Wave statistics

The wave climate of the Mediterranean basin is considered as derived from a ten year long time series of wave model data. The work presented here is part of the MEDATLAS project, whose aim is the edition of a Wind and Wave Atlas of the Mediterranean Sea, both in electronic and printed form. Statistical results are based on historical data from the ECMWF archives calibrated anew for the needs of MEDATLAS project, using satellite data (Topex altimeter). Then, a great number of statistics including univariate, bivariate, directional and time series statistics have been derived for the following wave parameters: (i) Significant wave height, (ii) Peak period, (iii) Wave steepness based on peak period, (iv) Wave direction. This kind of results is available for 239 data points in the basin. Moreover, using an enhanced contouring algorithm, the calibration factors for the 239 data points have been interpolated to produce a new set of factors for all the grid points of the basin, i.e. 935 points. In this way, a new enlarged wave database has been obtained, based on which two kinds of spatial statistics have been produced: a) spatial distribution of the mean value of wave parameters, b) spatial distribution of the probability of some important events, e.g., the probability that the significant wave height is greater than a given threshold.