How Does Wind Influence Wave Dynamics on the West Coast?

[JANm]

Today (25-10-09) I visited beach on the west coast with clearly south wind.
Looking to the waves, there were some with height h | 2 cm < h <10 cm, with peculiar high velocity. They were sailing on the wind. Somehow waves of these height are kept up, are stalled in falling down and the phase-velocity of falling eventualy went from south to north, but also from north to south, astonishing fast. v=5 m/s I should say. Sometimes a sn and a ns would meet and evaporate.

Is there an oceanografic or meteorologic report on "the influence of wind on waves"?
Janm

 

[tiny-tim]

Hi Janm!

Have you tried Lord Kelvin's "Mathematical and Physical Papers" (from the nineteenth century! )? … http://books.google.com/books?id=Wm...nepage&q="influence of wind on waves"&f=false

 

[JANm]

Thank You Tiny Tim
I read from page 76 to about 85 about: fishing techniques as fly-fishers know they become invisible to the fish from third order; capillary waves and dragging the fishing line.
It were no rinkles (third order), rather second order waves = regular small of about 2,5 cm in amplitude, but also bigger. Fase difference in falling made some sort of tube reminding me of the much bigger uns surfers in very special conditions like so much, them riding under the continuously falling waves as if in a tube... But those must be 2 metre in height.
The ones I saw were from 2cm until 10 cm as I already wrote, but if I take the 5 m/s as fase velocity that could be in the neighbourhood of a surfer velocity 18 km/s. ?
So it could be that this fase velocity is not very much in difference.

By the way this dragging of the fly while fishing looks indeed comparable with the sailing waves.
greetings Janm