New Data Product: Wave Partitions

CDIP has a new wave field partitioning data product available at cdip.ucsd.edu for all our wave buoy stations, e.g. cdip.ucsd.edu/m/products/partition/?stn=071p1.  To identify and plot individual wave fields as measured by the buoys, 2D spectral estimates are calculated using the maximum entropy method, and then partitioned using various methods, the default based on Portilla et al (2009).

Partitioning is a useful analysis for buoy stations which are exposed to wave energy from a range of geographic areas. The example shown is from 3 July 2025, when two primary wave fields were detected off Southern California: a long-period south swell, mixed with shorter period locally generated seas from the northwest. Offshore at CDIP 067, the NW seas showed higher total energy. CDIP 215, inside the bight, was more exposed to the south swell, and detected some of that long-period south energy reflecting off the Long Beach breakwater as a wave field from the north.