JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 90, NO. C6, PAGES 11,939-11,944, NOVEMBER 20, 1985 Wave Energy Saturation on a Natural Beachof Variable Slope ASBURYH. SALLENGER, JR.• Branchof PacificMarine Geology,U.S. Geologic.al Survey,Menlo Park, California ROBERT A. HOLMAN Collegeof Oceanography, OregonState University,Corvallis,Oregon Time seriesof flow weremeasuredacrossthe inner surfzoneduringa storm.Thesedata wereusedto quantifythe dependence of waveheight(transformed frommeasured flow)and velocityon localslope a.nddepth.Similarto previousstudies, asincidentwavesbrokeandpropagated into the surfzone,wave energy beca.rne saturated, andwaveheight wasstrongly dependent ondepth. However, theratioofrms waveheightto localdepth(•rms) wasfoundnot to be constant but to varybetween 0.29and0.55'•rrns increased withlocalslopeandwasindependent of deepwater wavesteepness. Thu•thesurfzonesimi• larityparameter (theratioofslopeto thesquare rootof steepness) didnotadequately parameterize •rms' INTRODUCTION 1965; Iverson, 1952]. For monochromatic wa•ves•, Bowen,et al. Wave energy in the inner surf zone is thought to become [1968] and Battjes [1974] useda surf zone similarity parame- of3'onslope andsteepness saturated sothatthelocalwaveheight H isa linearfunction ter•0 to showthedependence of the local depth h, tan fl H= 3'h •o=(Ho/Lo)•/2 (1) where3',accordingto somephysicalmodel studies,varieswith bottom slope and wave steepness. The significanceof (1) is thatwaveheightis described everywhere in•thesurfzonewithout having to determinethe details of energydissipationthat resultsfrom breakingwaves.Equation (1) is a critical element of theories of longshore currents [Bowen, 1969' LonguetHiggins, 1970; Thornton, 1971], wave setup [Bowen et al., 1968], and other surfzone processes. Althoughthe dependence of 3'on slopeand wave steepness has been extensivelyinvestigatedfor monochromatic waves, few data are available that quantify the variability of 3' for randomwavesin the field.In the presentstudywe measure d time seriesof flow acrossthe surf zone during a storm. We transformedthe measurementsof flow to wave heights and determined3'acrossa profile whoseslopevaried,both in time and space,nearly an order of magnitude.The data were collected under a wide range of incident wave conditions from steepsea waves during a storm to long-period swell waves. The data set was variedenoughto allow the dependence of 3' on bottom slopeand wave steepness to be thoroughlyexam- (2) where fl is the slope of the bottom profile, H0 is deepwater wave height,and Lo is deepwaterwavelength.For most model data, 3'increasedwith increasing•0- Most field studieshave determined3' by usingfilms that followindividualwavecrestsacrossthe surfzone [Sverdr•p and Munk, 1946; Suhayda and Petrigrew, 1977; Weishat and Byrne, 1978]. Weishat and Byrne [1978] found 3' to have a mean value close to the solitary wave theoretical result, although they found 3' to vary with breaker type, breaker type being a functionof fl and Ho/Lo. Sverdrupand Munk reported similar results.However, thesefilm resultsprobably do not reflectthe total distribution of waves.For randomwavesat anygivenmeandepthin the surfzonetherewili be distributions of bothbreaking andunbroken waveheights •Thorn- ton and Guza, 1983]. As a result of following single-breaking wave crests,presumablythe best developedand largestbreakers,the measured3'Of a film studymay be significantlylarger than 3' determined from the entire wave distribution, which includesboth breaking and unbroken waves. Using an extensivearray of instruments,Thorntonand Guza ined. • [1982] obtained time seriesof flow acrossa surf zone. They In the followingsectionwe reviewtheory and the previous transformedthese flow data to surfaceelevation speqtraand modelgndfieldstudieson waveenergysaturation.Then,after found 3'rms (3'basedon rms wave height)for the inner surf zone disc•Ussing th• design of theexperiment anditssetting, we to be 0.42, a factor of 2 or more less than the monochromatic presentr½sul.ts on how3'variedwith slopeandwavesteepness. wave results. Since thebeach onwl•ich theyworked wasof LITERATURE REVIEW nearly uniform slope, they were unable to determine whether there was a dependenceof 3' on fl. Wright et al. [1982] and Downing [1983] also found 3'for random waves of the field to be significantly lower than what was found for monochro, Using solitary wave theory, McGowan [1891] showedtheo- reticallythat 3'shouldbe a constantequal to 0.78. However, physicalmodel studiesemployingmonochromaticwaveshave shownthat 3'dependson beachslopeand/or wave steepness, matic waves. varyingroughlybetween0.7 and 1.2 [Galvin and Ea•tleson, EXPERIMENT • Now at U.S. Geological Survey,NationalCenter,Reston,Virginia. Copyright1985by theAmericanGeophysical Union. Paper number 5C0601. 0 ! 48-0227/85/005C-0601$05.00 During October 1982, a field experimentwas conductedat theFieldResearch Facility(FRF) of the U.S.ArmyEngineer's Waterways Experiment Station in Duck, North Carolina. The overall objectiveof the experimentwas to determinethe processesthat cause nearshoremorphology to change during 11,939 11,940 SALLENGER ANDHOLMAN'WAVEENERGY SATURATION =, -' , LEGEND CM - CURRENT METER P$- PRESSURE WG FRFPIER SENSOR WG - WAVE GAUGE MC - MOVIE CAMERA $$ - SUSPENDED SEDIMENT SENSOR AREA OF CM WG CM WG CRAB SURVEYS USGSSLED I $Y,STEM ' ¾' • WG '5'ss '2' M•C ; C M_._.• CM I 500 -- SHORELINE i i' 400 300 DISTANCE WG WG CM MC• I i 200 100 NORTH (m) Fig. 1. Plane view of the USGS sledsystemand the FRF pier. storms. Some initial results from this experiment are reported in $allengeret al. [1985] and Holman and Sallenger[1985]. The FRF is located on a long straight beach of a barrier island that has a single well-developednearshore bar. The foreshore is composed of coarse sand (mean diameter: 1-2 mm), whereasseaward of the trough of the bar, sand is relatively fine (mean: 0.18 mm). Most of the data discussedin this paper were obtainedwith the USGS sledsystem,which consistsof an instrumentedsled towed along the bottom, both offshore and onshore,with a double-drum winch and triangular line arrangement [$al- During October 1979, a similar, but smaller-scale,experiment was conductedon the shore of Monterey Bay, Califor-. nia, at Ford Ord. Flow and pressure data were obtained acrossthis high-energysurf zone by using the USGS sled system. RESULTS Most of the data discussed here were obtained at the FRF during a 3-day storm, October 10-12, 1982. Representative spectraof surfaceelevation•usingrecordsfrom the offshore wave .rider,are shownin Figure 2. During this high-energy lenger et al., 1983]. On the sled, 4-cm-diameterelectro- period, wave steepness(calculatedby using peak period and magnetic current meters (Marsh-McBirney model 512) were tabulated on Figure 2) and width of the incident spectrum mounted in a vertical array at 0.5 m, 1.0 m, and 1.75 m above varied considerably.On October 10, strong northeastwinds, the bottom. Flow data used in this report were measuredwith which reached 13 m/s, generatedsteep waves with a broad the 1.0-m sensor,although 7rmswas independentof depth of incidentspectrum.By October 12 the storm had moved offmeasurement.Also mounted on the sled was a pressuresensor, which was used to determine local depths. Data were telemetered to a shore receivingstation where they were digitally recorded at a rate of 2 Hz. All record lengths were 34.1 min. As the sled moved along the shore-normal transect,the nearshore profile was measuredby using an infrared rangefinder on the beach, sighting on optical prisms mounted on top of the sled'smast. The sledsystemwas set up 500 m north of the FRF pier (Figure 1) to avoid effectsthe pier has on local flows and sedimenttransport [Miller et al., 1983]. Additional wave data discussedin this report were measured with a pressuresensorlocated severalhundred meters seawardof the sled transectand a wave-rider buoy moored in 20 m of water 3 km offshore of the FRF. The pressuresensor data were collectedby the Coastal Data Information Program [ScrippsInstituteof Oceanography, 1982].The wave-riderdata were telemeteredto shore and processedby the FRF [Coastal EngineeringResearchCenter, 1982]. 40 - Oct 30 - z < 20 E > • DATE 12 iI iI I! I'• TIME Holm) Tp(s) Ho/Lo Oct 10 1600 2.25 6.9 0.03 Oct 11 1700 1,96 14.2 0,006 Oct 12 1600 2.40 16.8 0.005 oc•• /oc,,0 , / ,,-I, /\ 10 0 0.1 FREQUENCY 0.2 0.3 (Hz) Fig. 2. Representative spectrafor the 3 days of the storm,using data &om the offshore wave-rider buoy. Inset tabulates significant wave heights(Ho), peak periods (Tp), :hod wave steepnesses (no/•0). SALLENGER AND HOLMAN: WAVE ENERGYSATURATION 4 STATION - - - --f 10 7 2.6 LOCATIONS 11 8 •, Oct11t 1V'/' 1V4 11,941 2.4 13 1V8 2V0 2.2 19 '7 -- 0.42 2.0 ß 1.8 ,-, •-2 E LU-3 • W-4 - --oc,, Oct ---- ßt•11 ßß ß 1.6 ß 1.4 II • 1.2 10(11) Oct 12 I -,5 ,--, t I 100 I I 200 DISTANCE I 300 ß 1.0 I ß ß .11' 400 0.8 OFFSHORE I I ß 0.6 Fig. 3. Profiles and sled station locations for the experiment at Duck, North Carolina. The order in which the stationswere occupied is indicated by each station number. Profiles for the 10th and 11th were very similar; only the profile of the 10th is shown. ß ß 0.4 0.32 ß ß 0.2 I I I I 4 5 6 7 0 3 0 8 h shore,and local waves were light; waves were principally of Fig. 5. Pressuredata measuredwith Sxy gauge 580-m offshore the swell type and, relative to October 10, the incident spec(Figure 1). The data were obtained from the Coastal Data Infortrum had significantlydecreasedin width (Figure 2). Through- mation Program. Data were taken at 6-hour intervalsfor the periods out the 3-day period, the sled transectwas within the inner October 10-13 and October 23-25, 1982. 50% of the surf zone. On October 12, significant breaker height of nearly 4 m resultedin a surf zone width of roughly sinh I klh 900 m, the breaker zone occurring 400 m seaward of the end H(f) = (4) o cosh (I k I(h + z)) of the pier (Figure 1). Prior to the storm, a relatively small longshore bar was where k is wave number and z is the instrument depth measurveyed(Figure 3). Additionalsurveysto the north and south suredpositivelyupward from the still water surface.Hrmswas of the profile showedthe bar at this time to be reasonably calculated over the incident wave band of 0.05-0.33 Hz. The linear and shoreparallel [Sallengeret al., 1985]. During the 3 cutoff of 0.05 Hz was chosento remove low-frequency waves, days of the storm, the bar became better developed,and it such as surf beat, that would not be expectedto break in the migrated offshore about 57 m (Figure 3). Unfortunately, surf zone. Thornton and Guza showed that (3) was a reasonduring this high-energyperiod, we were unable to adequately able approximationof H .... evenin shallowwater. Guza and determinethe three-dimensionalmorphology of the bar. ObThornton[1980] showedthat Hrmscalculatedby using(3) and servationsby Short [1979] and others suggestthat bars are (4) comparedwithin 20% with H•m•data calculatedfrom both linear when incident wavesare large. pressuresensorand surface-piercingwave staff records.For For each day of the storm, flow records were obtained the presentdata we found H•mscalculatedfrom flow data was acrossthe nearshoreprofile (Figure 3). (Sinceone would not roughly 10% belowthat calculatedfrom pressure.It shouldbe expect waves to be saturatedin the trough of the bar, we do emphasizedthat H•m• of (3) incorporatesboth breaking and not discussany trough data). Following Thornton and Guza unbroken waves. [1982], we transformed flow spectrato surfaceelevation specHrm• is plottedagainstdepth in Figure 4. Again, all of the tra by usinglinear theory, and we calculated Hrmsas data were obtained from the inner surf zone where depth was shoal enough for most waves in the incident spectrum to mrms '- 2N//• Im(f)l2 [Gu(f)+Gv(f)]df (3) break. Thus energysaturationwould be expected.The 7rm•= do.os 0.42 relationshipfor the inner surf zone [Thornton and Guza, 1982] doesnot fit the majority of data. For most of the data, where Gu(f)is the cross-shoreflow spectrum,Gv(f) is the long= 0.32 is indicated.Note that the data that seemto agree shore flow spectrum, and H(f) is the linear transformation 7rms with the 0.32 trend were all obtained on the relatively gentle functiongiven by slope,well seawardof the bar crest(comparerun numbersof Figure 4 to station locationsof Figure 3). The data that are 2.0 • closer to the 0.42 trend were obtained from the much more steeplyslopingpart of the profileimmediatelyseawardof the bar crest. / ,-., 1.2- E '--' 1 1 • 1.0 -- .E 27 0.4 28 - .////•: 411 7'rm s =0.32 I ß 28 -I- 0.80.6 ß% 0.2- 0.4 '7 = 0.32 0.2 0.1 0 • 0 1 2 • i i i 3 4 5 6 h (m) - 0 0 Fig. 4. Sled data from the storm (October 10-12, 1982). Station numbers are used as data points. Refer to Figure 3 for station locations. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ho Fig. 6. 7rmsversusH o for pressure sensordata shownin Figure5. 11,942 SALLENGERAND HOLMAN' WAVE ENERGY SATURATION 0.6 6 7'rms = 3.2 tan • + 0.30 0.5 - 7 109 r2--0.70 Z• •81 0112 9 _o•10 <C•11 0.4 .•rl• ©©oo _ UJ<( 13 LEGEND ß Duck. NC 14 _ _ :• Fort Ord. Ca. 0.2 - 20 4 I I 0.02 0.4 (Downing.1983) 112 I 110 0.04 I 0.05 I 0.06 I I 120 SEAWARD 140 I 160 I 180 (m} 111 Twin Harbors Beach, Wa. I 0.03 810100I 113 (Wright et al.,1982} 0.01 I0 60I DISTANCE (Thornton and Guza, 1982} o 0 I 0 Goolwa Beach, Australia 0.1 0 A. I ß Torrey Pines Beach, Ca. n 113 I _ LU'Z 12 0.3 111 I I 0.07 109 0.3108 tan)• B. Fig. 7. 7rms versustan fi, wherefi is the slopeof the bottomprofile at the appropriatesled station. The data point from Thorntonand Guza [1982] representsa maximum 7rms.Thus this datum is not directlycomparableto the other data and is not usedin calculating the trend. 0.2 I ' 0 0.01 I 0.02 I 0.03 0.04 I 0.05 I 0.06 tan )• Fig. 8. (a) Stationlocationsfor Fort Ord, California.(b) 7rnas versus fi for the Fort Ord data. Well seawardof the sledline wherethe slopewas about the same as the gentle slopediscussedabove,wave energyalso appearedto saturatewith 7rms--0.32.Plotted in Figure 5 are data from the pressuresensorlocated 560 m offshore.Low- frequencywaveswere includedin calculatingthesepublished wave heights.However, the pressuresensorwas far enough offshoreso that the wave heightdata werenot seriouslycontaminated. Included in the plot are data obtained every 6 hours through two storms. One was the storm discussed above in regard to the sled data, and the other was a storm 2 weeks later, during which offshoresignificantwave heights reachednearly 6 m. Since the pressuresensorwas in much deeper water than depths occupiedby the sled and sincewe includedlow-energydata precedingand followingeachstorm, not all of the data plotted in Figure 5 would be expectedto be saturated.Thus for the roughly constantdepth of the pressure sensor (varying somewhat with tides), wave height ranged from relatively small to a maximum saturatedvalue governed by equation (1) with 7rmsequal to about 0.32 (Figure 5). This apparent saturation is confirmed in Figure 6, where using the samedata, we plot 7rms againstH0, deepwatersignificantwave height (approximated by significant height at the wave-rider buoy).For H0 lessthan about 2.3 m, 7rm•simplyincreasdwith H0, indicating the waveswere not saturated.However, for H0 greater than about 2.3 m, wave energy appeared to saturate, with 7rm•becomingroughly a constantat about 0.32, irrespective of H0. The dependenceof 7rmson tan /? is shown in Figure 7. Slopesplotted on Figure 7 and presentedin Table 1 are local slopesat the measurementlocation evaluated over horizontal distances of 10-15 m. The solid circles indicate manner as described above. Unlike the Duck data, for which TABLE 1. Wave Height and Profile Parameters Date October 10, 1982 Station Number 7 Location Duck, North Carolina 8 10 11 13 October 11, 1982 14 Duck, North Carolina 17 18 19 20 October 12, 1982 21 Duck, North Carolina 24 26 27 28 October 18, 1979 108 the sled data discussed thusfar; a rough trend is apparentwith 7rm•increasing with tan As discussedabove, additional sled data were gatheredat Ford Ord, California. These data were analyzed in the same Fort Ord California 109 110 111 112 113 *Not includedin trend calculationsof Figure 7 (seetext). Hrms, m Urnas , m/s h, •rnas 1.29 0.85 4.11 1.44 1.10 1.20 1.43 0.92 1.02 0.81 0.91 4.51 1.20 0.85 !.05 1.36 1.64 1.39 1.03 0.92 1.02 0.96 1.71 1.04 1.05 1.26 0.92 0.89 0.78 0.91 1.06 0.71 0.79 0.73 1.00 0.74 1.09 0.64 1.37 0.95 0.77 1.04 0.74 1.17 2.51 4.03 4.51 3.83 2.29 4.14 4.87 4.03 5.19 3.61 3.81 1.73 3.23 2.6 2.5 2.1 2.5 1.7 2.9 0.31 0.32 0.44 0.30 0.32 0.31 0.46 0.33 0.34 0.34 0.33 0.29 0.33 0.53 0.28 0.30* 0.40 0.35* 0.44 0.38 0.47 tan fi 0.014 0.007 0.052 0.004 0.010 0.012 0.049 0.004 0.010 0.008 0.010 0.016 0.007 0.061 0.004 0.0 0.011 0.0 0.021 0.0 0.05 SALLENGER AND HOLMAN' WAVE ENERGYSATURATION 0.4 - 0.3 0% x x • 0.2 LEGEND 0.1 ß Sxy gauge x 0 0 i t t i I 0.01 I I , i I 0.02 t I Sled data I , I 0.03 , ß Ho/Lo Fig. 9. Yrms versusHo/L o for the sleddata obtainedon the gentle slopes(Figure 3) and the eight apparentlysaturateddata points from the offshore pressuresensor (see Figure 6) that were obtained on about the sameslopeas the sleddata. 11,943 was saturated [Thornton and Guza, 1983]. The data from Duck indicated a landward increasein 7 that we have related to an increasein/•. Another interpretationwould be that the landward increasein 7 resultedfrom the distribution of wave heightsin the incidentwavefield.However,this interpretation seemsunlikely,sincethe Duck data were obtainedwithin the inner surf zone, where we assume most waves would have broken. In any casethe importanceof slopeis confirmedby the Ft. Ord data, which showed7 decreasinglandward with/•, oppositeto what would be predicted by distribution of wave heights.In contrast to the inner surf zone data discussedhere, distribution of wave heightswill likely have a significantcontrol of 7 in the outer surf zone, where some waves are unbroken. For sedimenttransport applicationsit is of interest to predict the wave-inducedvelocitiesdirectly. Using linear theory and shallow-water approximations,wave-inducedoscillatory 7rmsincreasedwith decreasingdepth (compareFigures3 and 4), •rmsfor the Ford Ord data decreased with decreasing depth velocity isgivenby (Figure 8). Note that the part of the Fort Ord profile of inu = 0.5(ah)ø-57 (6) terestwasconvexup (Figure 8a), whereasthe part of the Duck profile of interestwas concaveup (Figure 3). Becauseof these whereg is accelerationof gravity. Substitutingfrom (5) yields differencesin profile shape,Yrmsfor both the Fort Ord and Duck data increasedwith tan/• (Figure 8b). Most of the Fort Ord data (Figure 8b) are plotted along with the Duck data in Figure 7. Not plotted are data from stations 110 and 108 (Figure 8), which are on the part of the profile with zero slope and are apparentlynot saturated.On this part of the profile, wave heightdecreasedas a resultof continuedbreaking,even though depth was constant (Figure 8). The Ford Ord and Duck data, along with some additional data from the literature, show a reasonabletrend, although there is significant scatterwith Yrms for the Ford Ord data plotting higher than •rmsfor the Duck data. Linear regressiongives 7.,,s- 3.2 tan/• + 0.30 with r 2 - 0.70.Standarderrorsfor slopeand offsetare 0.5 and 0.01,respectively. The 99% confidencelevelthat 7,,,sis dependent on/• is r 2 > 0.26. The parameter7•m•does not appear to depend on wave steepness. Sleddata, obtainedon the seawardpart of the profile where bottom slope was roughly constant(Figure 3), are plotted againsttto/L o in Figure 9. Also plotted are the offshore pressuresensor data, which appear to be saturated (Figure 6) and were obtainedon about the sameslopeas the sleddata. Figure 9 showsno dependence of 7,,,• on Ho/Lo. DISCUSSION Based on early monochromaticstudies, equation (1) has commonlybeen usedwith 7 equal to a constantof 1. In this study,•rmswas found not to be constantbut to vary significantly with slope.Furthermore, similar to resultsof some earlier studies,we found that 7 = 1 for random waves overestimates7,,,, by a factorof 2 or more for mostnatural slopes. For laboratory data the surf similarity parameter •0 (equation 2) appearsto parameterizemany different surf zone processes,including setup, runup, breaker type, and saturation [Bowen et al., 1968; Batties, 1974]. Furthermore, runup data obtained in the field can be parameterizedby •0 [Holman and Sallenger,1985]. However, in the presentfield study we find • to be independentof Ho/Lo and thus •0. In the field there is a distribution of wave heights, and the largest waves will break farther offshore than the smaller waves, causing a landward increase in •; • would continue increasinglandward until all waves were broken and energy U,m.• = 1.6tan/•+ 0.15 (ah)ø.• (7) Using measuredU .... calculatedfrom measuredflow spectra, resultsin essentiallythe samerelationshipas (7). CONCLUSIONS Flow measurements, which were transformed into measures of wave height, were obtained acrossthe storm surf zone. The data set was appropriate to quantify the dependenceof wave height on local slopeand depth. As incidentwavesbroke and propagated into the inner surf zone, wave heights became strongly depth dependentand could be describedby equation (1); 7rms increasedwith increasingslopeand was independent of wave steepness. Thus the surf similarity parameter-the ratio of tan//to the squareroot of steepness-does not adequately parameterizesaturation. Acknowledgments.We thank Jeff List, Tom Reiss, Bruce Richmond, Bruce Jaffe, and Peter Howd for setting up and operating the sledsystemand Curt Mason and the FRF crew for generalsupport of the experiment.Jeff List did the programmingfor most of the calculations used in this paper. This work was funded jointly by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, Coastal EngineeringResearchCenter, Vicksburg, Mississippi.Additional support for R. A. H. was provided by Office of Naval Research,Coastal SciencesBranch contract NR 388-168. REFERENCES Batties, J. A., Surf similarity, in Proceedingsof the 1,1thConferenceon Coastal Engineering,vol. 1, pp. 466-480, American Societyof Civil Engineers,New York, 1974. Bowen,A. J., The generationof longshorecurrentson a plane beach, or.Mar. Res., 37, 206-215, 1969. Bowen, A. J., D. L. Inman, and V. P. Simmons, Wave setdown and setup,or.Geophys.Res.,73, 2569-2577, 1968. 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Pettigrew,Observations of waveheightand wavecelerityin the surfzone,J. Geophys.Res.,82, 1419-1424,1977. (ReceivedFebruary 26, 1985; acceptedApril 22, 1985.)