•  Interactive WWA 2.0 demo (from the US East Coast and Gulf of Mexico Atlas)
• If you have any comments, suggestions, ideas etc. regarding WWA click here.
• Download the WWA 2.0 demo. More information on the WWA 2.0 demo are given further down on this page.
• For a list of applications of WWA data please click here 

World Wave Atlas (WWA) is in fact two things. First, it is the collective name for a series of comprehensive high resolution interactive wind and wave atlases capable of providing accurate wind and wave climate statistics for any country or region worldwide. Secondly, it is a global data base which we at OCEANOR use in our own consultancy work (for the offshore industry, wave energy interests, coastal engineers etc.). In addition to the PC atlases, we can provide any of the following at any location globally, based on the WWA data base.

• Time series of wave heights, period and direction; primarily these are deep water data, but shallow water time series can also be provided if the customer does not have an in-house wave model to perform the transformation. Series of up to 20 years in European waters and up to 12 years elsewhere can be provided.
   
• A selection of wave statistics can be provided for the location in question. Typical statistics include exceedence probabilities for wave height, extreme significant wave height, maximum wave height and crest height estimates, duration statistics (downtime analysis), bivariate and trivariate statistics for wave heights, periods and directions (e.g. scatter diagrams of wave height and period) etc.
   
• Statistics can be provided either electronically, by fax or in a printed data report, including details of the methodology, the data quality, a general description of the wave climate, time series plots, statistics etc.

In the following, we describe the World Wave Atlas 2.0 data base and software. An offer for wave data for a particular location or an atlas for a given area, country or region will be given if you send us an e-mail specifying the area or location of interest. Many customers choose both a report with statistics in addition to WWA for the same area, as we offer WWA at a much reduced price if the customer has already purchased statistics. In this case, the satellite data from WWA allows you to assess the spatial variability of the wave and wind climate over a larger area around the main site of interest, in addition to giving greater flexibility in producing different statistics, which maybe were forgotten, or which you were unaware of the need for, initially.

You may also be interested in a very recent development within the realm of wave and wind climate. OCEANOR were coordinator of a small European consortium who have developed a software package capable of providing wave statistics practically anywhere in Europe (even in shallow water). The EUROWAVES project was supported under the EU's MAST III programme and runs from November 1997 to October 2000. The package is based on a high quality European wide offshore wave data base, which derives from wave data from the last 20 years from the WAM model run at ECMWF in the UK, quality controlled by satellite altimeter data. Together with a European wide bathymetric and coastline data base and toolbox, an advanced statistical package and various shallow water wave models, the toolbox makes wave data much more accessible than at present. Both Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of Europe, the Baltic, Black Sea and the Barents Sea are included. You can read more about this exciting new development on the project's home page or read more by downloading a recent summary paper. OCEANOR are also marketing WORLDWAVES, which are tailor made systems based on the EUROWAVES package for any region or country worldwide.

• An on-line interactive demonstration of the main features of WWA2.0 can be run through here and now by clicking here. The demo shows data, both from our US East Coast and Gulf of Mexico Wave Atlas.
   
• If you have any comments, need more information, have any suggestions or ideas about WWA 2.0, please click here to get in touch with us.

Country wave atlases under the WWA2.0 software may contain the following data at present:

• GEOSAT data (1986-89)
   
• Topex/Poseidon (1992-2000); measurements still ongoing and can be updated annually.
   
• Available buoy data (e.g., in the US Wave Atlases, NOAA buoy data will also be included and, in the Norwegian Wave Atlas, buoy and platform data may also be included, bringing together all available data under the same tool)
   
• Quality controlled wave data from a global wave model (UK Met. Office) or regional model archives, such as EUROWAVES; the model data are validated against altimeter data and corrected, if necessary, to ensure that the data homogeneity.

There is no limitation on the parameters to be presented and the customer's own site specific measurements and model data can also be integrated with WWA 2.0. Data can be presented both geographically and the statistical module allows most commonly used wave and wind statistics to be calculated (e.g., univariate and bivariate frequency distributions, exceedence curves, extreme statistics for significant, maximum and crest wave heights, spatial and temporal variability including along track variations, seasonal and inter-annual variability, direction roses etc.). Any area or time period can easily be selected for analysis.

Equipment Requirements:

Applications of WWA data

Data used to specify the deep water incoming wave climate as boundary conditions to shallow water wave models in connection with coastal projects such as

• Design of sewage outfall
• Coastal defence works
• Design of pipeline for mining tailings
• Harbour design
• Harbour operations
• Dredging downtime analysis
• Transport of heavy machinery to a coastal site for power station under construction
• Coastal operations
• Wave energy resource studies http://www.oceanor.no/wave_energy
• Coastal erosion study

Offshore (and inshore)

• Calibration of wave models
• Assessment of the representativity of short term buoy measurements
• Reconstruction of wave conditions during an accident for insurance purposes
• Downtime analysis for an offshore operation
• Ship routing planning
• Offshore design conditions
• Offshore tanker offloading downtime analysis
• Typhoon model validation
• Offshore wave energy resource study
• Search and rescue operations
• Design of offshore fish farm
• Reconstruction of wave conditions during a seakeeping trial or various other experiments at sea
• Assessment of wave climate trends
• EU Research projects, as input to wave atlas projects etc.
• Educational
• Defence planning
• Wave conditions for a planned fast ferry route

Other Related Links

• Wave Energy Activities at Oceanor http://www.oceanor.no/projects/wave_energy
• Norwegian Space Centre (http://www.spacecentre.no) - co-funded the development of WWA2.0.
• Eurowaves (http://www.oceanor.no/projects/eurowaves) - an EU MAST project developing a European wide coastal wave analysis toolbox, utilising data from World Wave Atlas and other sources.
• Centre for Earth Observation, CEO (http://www.ceo.org) - is a European initiative to encourage the wider use of information generated by Earth Observation satellites. CEO have provided funding for marketing WWA.

Publications from the Satellite Application Group at Oceanor:

Barstow, S.F. and Deo, R., 1993. A Wave Energy Resource Climatology for the South Pacific. Proc. 1993 European Wave Energy Symposium. Edinburgh, U.K., July 1993.

Barstow, S.F., Bern, T.I., Bjerken, S., Brate, T.I., Haug, O., Houmb, O.G. and Krogstad, H.E., 1994. World Wave Climatologies from Satellite Altimeters. Proc. OCEANS '94, OSATES Conference, Brest, France, September 1994.

Barstow, S.F. and Krogstad, H.E., 1994. Calibration and Use of GEOSAT Altimeter Wave Data. Proc. 2^nd ERS-1 Workshop at the Dept. of Oceanography from Space, March 1994.

Barstow, S.F., Paillard, M. and Soares, C., 1994. Field Measurements of Coastal Waves and Currents in Portugal and Greece in the WAVEMOD Project. Proc. OCEANS '94 OSATES Conference, Brest, France, September 1994.

Barstow, S.F. and Krogstad, H.E., 1995. Wave Climate Assessment by Satellite Remote Sensing. Proc. of the Fifth (1995) Int. Offshore and Polar Engineering Conf. (ISOPE '95), The Hague, The Netherlands, June 1995.

Barstow, S.F., 1996. Validating Topex/Poseidon Significant Wave Heights. AVISO Altimetry Newsletter No. 4., Feb. 1996, p. 23.

Barstow, S.F. and Falnes, J., 1996. Ocean Wave Energy in the South Pacific; the resource and its utilisation. Glossy brochure published by the South Pacific Geoscience Commission (SOPAC), Nov. 1996, 60 pp.

Barstow, S.F. and Falnes, J., 1996. Ocean Wave Energy in the Philippines; the resource and its utilisation. Report submitted to the Department of Energy in the Philippines, Dec. 1996, 150 pp.

Barstow S.F., 1996. World Wave Atlas. AVISO Altimetry Newsletter No. 4, Feb. 1996, pp. 24-25.

Barstow, S.F. and Krogstad, H.E., 1995. Wave-Climate Assessment by Satellite Remote Sensing. Sea Technology. October 1995, pp 31-38.

Barstow, S.F. and Krogstad, H.E., 1993. Analysis of Extreme Waves and Recent Storms in the Norwegian Sea. Unpublished paper presented at the Climatic Trends and Future Offshore Design and Operation Criteria Workshop, Reykjavik, Iceland, 29-30 March 1993, 32 pp.

Barstow, S.F., 1995. Validation of the Topex/Poseidon altimeter measurements of significant wave height and wind speed. OCEANOR Rep. No. OCN R-95053.

Barstow, S.F., 1993. Validation of the GEOSAT Altimeter Exact Repeat Mission Wind and Wave Products. OCEANOR Rep. No. OCN R-93087.

Engen, G., Johnson, H., Krogstad, H.E. and Barstow, S.F., 1994 Directional Wave Spectra by Inversion of ERS-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar Ocean Imagery. IEEE Trans. on Geosc. and Rem. Sens. 32 (2), 340-52.

Haug, O. and Barstow, S.F., 1997. WWA 2.0; Comprehensive Interactive Country and Regional Wave and Wind Atlases Worldwide. Proc. 4^th Int. Conf. Remote Sens. Mar. Coast. Env., Orlando, Florida, March '97.

Johnson, H., Engen, G., Krogstad, H.E. and Barstow, S.F., 1992. Directional Wave Spectra by Inversion of ERS-1 SAR Imagery. ERS-1 Geophysical Validation Workshop, Penhors, Bretagne, France, Apr. 92.

Olsen, R.B., Barstow, S.F. and Schyberg, H., 1989. Wave Measurements on Haltenbanken during NORCSEX '88. An intercomparison of Buoy, SAR and Altimeter Data. Proc. IGARSS '89 Conference.

Pontes, M.T., Athanassoulis, G.A., Barstow, S.F., Cavaleri, L., Holmes, B., Mollison, D. and Oliveira-Pires, H., 1995. An Atlas of the Wave Energy Resource in Europe. Proc. 14^th Int. Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering Conf. (OMAE '95), Copenhagen, June 1995.

Pontes, M.T., Athanassoulis, G.A., Barstow, S.F., Cavaleri, L., Holmes, B., Mollison, D. and Oliveira-Pires, H., 1996. An Atlas of the Wave Energy Resource in Europe. Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering, November 1996, Vol 118, pp. 307-309.

Pontes, M.T., Athanassoulis, G.A., Barstow, S.F. Bertotti, L., Holmes, B., Mollison, D. and Oliveira-Pires, H., 1995. European Atlas of the Wave Energy Resources. Proc. 2^nd European Wave Power Conference, Lisbon, November 1995.

Barstow, S.F., 1997. An algorithm for estimating wind speed from the Topex altimeter s₀. OCEANOR Report No. OCN R-97034.

Barstow, S.F., 1997. Validation of the ERS-1 Altimeter Measurements of Significant Wave Height and Wind Speed. OCEANOR Rep. No. OCN R-97003.

Barstow, S.F., Haug, O. and Krogstad, H.E., 1997. Satellite Altimeter Data in Wave Energy Studies. Proceedings of the Waves 97 Conference, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA, Nov. 1997.

Krogstad, H.E. and Barstow, S.F., 1998. Satellite Wave Measurements. Proceedings of the Oceanology International Conference, Brighton, UK, March 1998 (on CD rom).

Krogstad, H.E. and Barstow, S.F., 1999. Satellite Wave Measurements. Coastal Engineering, 37, 283-307.