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Climatological wave height, wave period and wave power along coastal areas of the East Coast of the United States and Gulf of Mexico

Metadata Updated: September 16, 2025

This U.S. Geological Survey data release provides data on spatial variations in climatological wave parameters (significant wave height, peak wave period, and wave power) for coastal areas along the United States East Coast and Gulf of Mexico. Significant wave height is the average wave height, from crest to trough, of the highest one-third of the waves in a specific time period. Peak wave period is the wave period associated with the most energetic waves in the wave spectrum in a specific time period. Wave power is the energy per unit length generated by the movement of ocean waves. Climatological wave conditions provide the average forcing that can lead to changes in the coastal environment. For the generation of this dataset, we use model simulations. Waves under different climatological wind forcing conditions averaged from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) Re-Analysis (ERA-5) were simulated using the coupled ADCIRC/SWAN model system. Coastal areas are resolved with horizontal resolutions on the order of hundreds of meters. The ADCIRC/SWAN simulations provide steady-state wave conditions under constant wind at each computational point of an unstructured grid that covers the entire area of interest—from the open ocean to overland areas up to approximately 15 meters above the North American Vertical Datum of 1988. The simulations provide wave height and period and are also used to calculate wave power. We consider the frequency of occurrence of each wind magnitude and direction bin for each location to reconstruct weighted-average wave conditions. The resulting wave parameters are provided at all points of the computational grid less than 10 meter elevation and shallower than -30 meter bottom depth (North American Vertical Datum of 1988). Grid points above 10 meters and deeper than 30 meters are given a fill value.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 16, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 16, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-61ce0a6dd34ed79293fc874b
Data Last Modified 2024-07-09T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id fa30cdad-8357-4c12-984f-cfc1b1a4498a
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -98.00214, 5.83791, -54.34012, 45.83881
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 935848033f0473c96d62830524c60f5dadc32e38fe46e6b7e07ac50c80d09dcf
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -98.00214, 5.83791, -98.00214, 45.83881, -54.34012, 45.83881, -54.34012, 5.83791, -98.00214, 5.83791}

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