I would like to know which are the best methods used to predict sea waves characteristics (particularly predict length/height given water depth and wind speed) and how are they used. My major is unrelated to physics.
I found some slides from the MIT's Ocean Engineering where several complex wave spectral models (like Bretschneider or Jonswap models) are presented, and also found this question, which I think is closely related, however the answer seems to be the "Green's law"...
The best Wind Wave Models for predicting sea wave characteristics are going to be the forecasting products (computer programs) offered by national weather and oceanographic agencies such as NOAA and Environment Canada.
This could be wrong or an oversimplification, but I think the basic physics works like this. Waves are whipped up by winds, and then they propagate outwards. In the area where they're produced, the height should depend on the strength of the wind, while the spectrum of frequencies will be identical to that of the wind. As the waves propagate outward from the source, there is dispersion, so someone far away will see the different parts of the spectrum arrive at different times.
