Question

With a steady wind blowing at 15Kn blowing over the sea is it possible to determine the speed the waves are travelling?

Thanks

Mike

Answer 1

Yes, by using a combination of gps (for ship velocity) and laser velocimeter (for wave relative velocity), and vector addition. However, the wave speeds will not all be the same, and will not equal the wind speed.

Answer 2

You can always determine wave speed by knowing ship speed and direction, wave direction, and time it takes for wave to travel ship length (relative speed).
What you have is wave speed relative to ship speed, so you do a vector addition. Wind speed does not matter, as long as you have ship speed known, either relative to water, or relative to actual location. Seldom does water speed matter at sea for these calcs.

For a most interesting discussion of waves, see..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_surface_wave