Reconstruction of Ocean Surfaces From Randomly Distributed Measurements Using a Grid-Based Method

In view of deterministic ocean wave prediction, we introduce and investigate a new method to reconstruct ocean surfaces based on randomly distributed wave measurements. Instead of looking for the optimal parameters of a wave model through the minimization of a cost function, our approach directly solves the free surface dynamics — coupled with an interpolation operator — for the quantities of interest (i.e., surface elevation and velocity potential) at grid points that are used to compute the relevant operators. This method allows a high flexibility in terms of desired accuracy and ensures the physical consistency of the solution. Using the linear wave theory and unidirectional wave fields, we validate the applicability of the proposed method. In particular, we show that our grid-based method is able to reach similar accuracy than the wave-model parameterization method at a reasonable cost.