SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHT ⓘ
— ft
Observation loading
EL SEGUNDO, CALIFORNIA AN OCEAN STUDY
Morning waves.
A slower look at the Pacific.
One offshore buoy. A little perspective.
Not every wave needs
to be chased.
Some can be understood.
THE OFFSHORE PICTURE
Santa Monica Bay NDBC 46221 · CDIP 028
Loading observation
AN ORIGINAL WAVE STUDYSCHEMATIC · NORTH UP
Waiting for the buoy
The Pacific
sets the pace.
No measurement has been inferred.
Static while the observation loads
The illustration is a north-up, overhead teaching model. Its moving crests use the observed dominant period; relief uses significant wave height. It is not a view or a phase-resolved reconstruction of real waves.
DOMINANT PERIOD
— s
Time between modeled crests
WAVES ARRIVING FROM
—
Source direction unavailable
WATER TEMPERATURE
— °F
Offshore, at the buoy
A LITTLE CONTEXT
The last 24 hours.
Every observation is a moment.
The line helps you see the rhythm.
Significant wave height / ft
OBSERVED AT THE BUOYWaiting for observation history
READ THE WATER
Three numbers.
A whole ocean
of meaning.
The buoy measures a sea state. Our drawing makes a few relationships visible.
Go deeper in the Pacific field guide01 / HEIGHT
A sea state, not a single wave.
Significant wave height is a statistical measure, roughly the average height of the highest one-third of waves. Individual waves vary; some are larger.
02 / PERIOD
Give the ocean its own clock.
Dominant period is the period with the most wave energy. The animation uses that many seconds between crests at a fixed point. Longer periods imply wider spacing in the approximate deep-water model.
Model wavelength and speed will appear when period is available.
03 / DIRECTION
From there. Moving this way.
The buoy reports where waves come from, in degrees true. Their travel bearing is 180° opposite. The north-up compass and surface show that direction when it is available.
THE INSTRUMENT BEHIND THE PICTURE
Out in the bay.
Rooted in real data.
NDBC 46221 / CDIP 028 is an offshore wave buoy in Santa Monica Bay, over approximately 387 metres of water. Its observations describe that location.
- Station position
- 33.860° N, 118.641° W
- Source
- NOAA / NDBC · CDIP
- Source retrieved
- Report assembled
PointCast age policy: fresh ≤ 90 minutes · delayed ≤ 3 hours · stale ≤ 6 hours · expired after 6 hours. Age follows the observation time. Expired observations remain dated and motion stops. Refreshing does not make an old observation new.