Wave Dynamics and Radio Probing of the Ocean Surface

Book excerpt: In 1960, Dr. George Deacon ofthe National Institute ofOceanography in England organized a meeting in Easton, Maryland that summarized the state of our understanding at that time of ocean wave statistics and dynamics. It was a pivotal occasion: spectral techniques for wave measurement were beginning to be used, wave-wave interactions hadjust been discovered, and simple models for the growth of waves by wind were being developed. The meeting laid the foundation for much work that was to follow, but one could hardly have imagined the extent to which new techniques of measurement, particularly by remote sensing, new methods of calculation and computation, and new theoretical and laboratory results would, in the following twenty years, build on this base. When Gaspar Valenzuela of the V. S. Naval Research Laboratory perceived that the time was right for a second such meeting, it was natural that Sir George Deacon would be invited to serve as honorary chairman for the meeting, and the entire waves community was delighted at his acceptance. The present volume contains reviewed and edited papers given at this second meeting, held this time in Miami, Florida, May 13-20, 1981, with the generous support of the Office of Naval Research, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.