| Summary: | Field measurements of directional waves were carried out during the summer of 2002 at two coastal sites in water of finite depth. A couple of general purpose instruments were used employing acoustic Doppler technology. The aim of the study was to investigate the spatial behavior of the directional movement of waves as they come ashore. In total, 74 tests were carried out during which sea states of low to moderate intensity were recorded. A great number of these runs displayed bimodal characteristics of the spreading function at high frequencies. It was found that in general, the frequency-integrated directional width tends to broaden as the water shoals and when refraction effects are negligible. This is attributed to wave-wave interactions that become pronounced in shallow water. The same directional width showed, also, a tendency to increase with increasing peak frequency of the sea state spectrum. The behavior of the kurtosis of the spreading function was also examined. It was found that for higher frequencies this index tends to increase in wave spectra above a certain sea severity threshold.
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