WMO Global Campus Collection of Learning Resources

This self-paced online course begins with a Webcast by Troy Nicolini in which he introduces forecasters to typical marine forecast customers and their particular wind and wave concerns. The second module discusses the basic traits of waves and how they change once they become swell. It serves as building block to the subsequent modules on wave generation, propagation, and dispersion. The Wave Life Cycle I: Generation module examines how wind creates waves and the inter-relationships between wind speed, wind duration, and fetch length. Following that module, Wave Life Cycle II: Propagation & Dispersion, teaches marine forecasters to manually predict how wave height and period change as waves leave their generation area, become swell, and then propagate and disperse into coastal waters. The final element of the course is a resource guide primarily intended for experienced forecasters that may be new to marine forecast responsibilities. The guide highlights differences between the marine boundary layer and terrestrial boundary layer winds.