The establishment of quantitative relationships between recorded wave-system characteristics and other phenomena requires numerical description of the wave record. Current concepts applied to time histories of wave activity at a point are discussed. Characteristic statistical regularities found in wave measurements are described. Examples given show the application of statistical techniques' to the description of wave systems in terms of the distribution of spectral energy as well as the

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... utions of "individual" wave heights and periods. Results from the prediction, from one point to another, of surface time histories illustrate the application of approximate spectral information.