Statistics of fetch-limited wind waves observed along the western coast of the Gulf of Aqaba

Abstract Wind driven waves regime along the western shore of the Gulf of Aqaba is only sparsely investigated, despite its significant impact on the abundance of engineering, leisure, and environmental protection activities in the gulf. As part of an ongoing effort, this study is aimed at partially closing the knowledge gap in describing the statistical parameters of typical wind-wave fields observed under the diurnal sea-breeze conditions characterizing the local wave climate. Also testing the suitability and performance of a few selected statistical models in describing the distributions of observed surface elevations, wave heights, and crest and trough amplitudes. Models’ performance is assessed based on an empirical data set collected during a 50-h long measurement campaign, including an analysis of breaking-wave occurrences with a method allowing an accurate identification of breakers across the full range of crest amplitudes and breaking intensities. It is found to be satisfactory and suitable for future implementation in local wave-field modeling. In particular, the distributions of crest amplitudes and wave heights tend to be affected by the frequency of occurrence of breaking waves, calling for further development of the models to account for breakers, especially over the range of high waves.