Statistical distribution of surface slope in a 3-D ocean wave field

A joint probability density function (PDF) for surface slopes in two arbitrary directions is derived on the basis of Longuet Higgins's linear model for three-dimensionol (3-D) random wave field. and the correlation moments of surface slopes. as parameters in the PDF, are expressed in terms of directional spectrum of ocean waves. So long as the directional spectrum model is given, these parameters are determined. Since the directional spectrum models proposed so far are mostly parameterized by the wind speed and fetch, this allows for substituting these parameters with thc wind speed and fetch. As an example, the wind speed and fetch are taken to be 14 m ' s and 200 km, and the Hasselmann and Donclan directional spectra are, respectively, use to compute these parameters. Some novel results a reobtained. One of the increasing interesting results is that the variances of surface slope in downwind and cross-wind directions determined by the Donclan directional spectra are close to those measured by Cox and Munk (1954). Some discussions are made on these results.