Sea Waves

The vast ocean rises and falls in huge mountains of deep blue that move with the authority and power of ancient gods dancing without a care. The sky simply looks on with stillness, hoping not to be noticed by the hungry sea spray, searching the air for some small creature or ship's captain to bath in its warm salt water as if standing on the deck of a giant floating spittoon. Sea waves are mechanical waves that propagate along the interface between water and air; the restoring force is provided by gravity, and so they are often referred to as surface gravity waves. As the wind blows, pressure and friction forces perturb the equilibrium of the water surface. These forces transfer energy from the air to the water, forming waves. The initial formation of waves by the wind is described in the theory of Phillips from 1957, and the subsequent growth of the small waves has been modeled by Miles, also in 1957. Surfers are very interested in the wave forecasts. There are many websites that provide predictions of the surf quality for the upcoming days and weeks. Wind wave models are driven by more general weather models that predict the winds and pressures over the oceans, seas and lakes. Wind wave models are also an important part of examining the impact of shore protection and beach nourishment proposals. For many beach areas there is only patchy information about the wave climate, therefore estimating the effect of wind waves is important for managing littoral environments. This sound uses the following file from Freesound: http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=124405