| Wind-generated surface gravity waves are ubiquitous at the ocean surface. Their period varies between 2 and 25 seconds, with wavelength varying between a few meters to several hundreds of meters. Longer and, lower frequency surface gravity waves, called infragravity (IG) waves, are associated to these short, high frequency wind-generated waves. These infragravity waves have dominant periods comprised between 30 seconds and 10 minutes, and, when they propagate freely, with horizontal wavelengths of up to tens of kilometres, as given by the linear surface gravity wave dispersion relation. Outside of surf zones, the vertical amplitude of these infragravity waves is of the order of 1-10 cm, while the amplitude of wind-generated waves is of the order of 1-10... |
