dc.description.abstract | The national Meteorological Services of a large number of maritime countries have, for many years now, been engaged
in the provision of ocean wave forecast and hindcast services in support of the requirements of users in the whole range
of maritime activities (shipping, fisheries, offshore mining, commerce, coastal engineering, construction, recreation, and
so on). In recognition of this, and of the relative lack of easily accessible guidance material on wave forecasting methodology
suitable for use by national Meteorological Services in developing countries, the WMO Guide to wave analysis and
forecasting was prepared by a group of experts and published in 1988 as publication WMO-No. 702. This formal WMO
Guide updated and replaced the earlier, very popular, WMO Handbook on the same subject, first published in 1976.
In further recognition, both of the requirements of national Meteorological Services for the provision of ocean
wave-related services and also of the rapid developments which were occurring in wave measurement, analysis and
forecast techniques, the WMO Commission for Marine Meteorology (CMM) established in 1984 a WMO wave
programme. The various elements of this programme are implemented, reviewed and updated by the CMM Subgroup
on Wave Modelling and Forecasting. One of these elements involves the continuous review and revision, as
necessary, of the Guide to wave analysis and forecasting. To this end, the sub-group established, in 1991, an ad hoc
group of experts, under the chairmanship of Dr A. K. Laing (New Zealand), to undertake a complete revision and
updating of the Guide, in the light of new developments and especially of feedback from users of the first edition.
The international team of experts, directed by Dr Laing, individually prepared substantially revised versions of
the different chapters of the Guide. These individual contributions were subsequently coordinated, assembled and
edited by Dr Laing into a draft, which was then submitted to a wide network of wave experts for review and comment.
Reviewers’ comments were incorporated to the extent possible and a final editing of a new, second edition of the
Guide was made by Dr Laing. | |