This paper summarizes the statistics of observations of wind and surface gravity waves in Long Island Sound, a large estuarine embayment in southern New England. We examine the relationship between significant wave height and wind speed and direction and show that the significant wave height and dominant period in western Long Island Sound have an asymmetric response to the wind direction. Waves are larger and have longer periods when the wind is from the east than when the same stress is directed from the west. The data are consistent with the predictions of empirical parameterizations of fetch limited wave growth when the wind is from the west. However, for easterly winds, the westward narrowing of the Sound limits wave growth and requires that an effective fetch of approximately 30 km be used in the empirical formulae. An examination of the extreme values in the time series shows that previous estimates based on simulations significantly underestimates the occurrence of large waves with the important consequence that design guidance for shore protection structures may underestimate wave heights during severe storms. We speculate that earlier work has not adequately represented the consequences of fetch asymmetry on wave growth.

中文翻译：

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西部长岛海浪中的海浪：有限的沿海盆地

本文总结了长岛海峡中风和地面重力波的观测统计数据，长岛海峡是新英格兰南部的一个大型河口港湾。我们研究了重要波高与风速和风向之间的关系，发现长岛湾西部的重要波高和主导周期对风向具有非对称响应。当风来自东方时，与来自西方的相同应力相比，波浪更大且周期更长。数据与风为西风时取有限波增长的经验参数化的预测一致。但是，对于东风，声音的向西变窄会限制波浪的增长，并需要在经验公式中使用大约30 km的有效距离。对时间序列中的极值进行检查后发现，先前基于模拟的估计值大大低估了大浪的发生，其重要结果是，海岸保护结构的设计指南可能会低估暴风雨期间的浪高。我们推测较早的工作并不能充分代表取回不对称对波浪生长的影响。