Abstract
Breaking waves are usually associated with steep waves that occur in a given sea. Several criteria have been proposed for the detection of wave breaking events in the past with somewhat arbitrary thresholds. In general they can be divided into two classes, the first related to some characteristics of the surface elevation at a point, and the second to observations of air entrainment, whitecaps or ambient noise. The first set of simple criteria of the limiting form of wave motion was established by Stokes more than one hundred years ago (Stokes 1847, 1880). According to Stokes, the necessary criteria to start an individual wave breaking are:
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© 2007 Springer
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Massel, S.R. (2007). Wave breaking criteria and probability of breaking. In: Ocean Waves Breaking and Marine Aerosol Fluxes. ATMOSPHERIC AND OCEANOGRAPHIC SCIENCES LIBRARY, vol 38. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-69092-6_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-69092-6_5
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-36638-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-69092-6
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