Scaled photographs of surf over the full range of breaker sizes on the north shore of Oahu and Jaws, Maui, Hawaiian Islands (NODC Accession 0001753)

Digital surf photographs were scaled using surfers as height benchmarks to estimate the size of the breakers. Historical databases for surf height in Hawaii are recorded in Hawaii Scale Feet (HSF), and these photographs have been used to translate HSF to trough-to-crest heights. Results show the trough-to-crest heights to be double the HSF within a 10-20% margin of error over the full range of possible breaker sizes. This assumes 1) the trough- to-crest height is defined as the highest height reached in the vertical between the crest and the preceding trough at any point along the wave front during breaking and 2) zones of high refraction on outer reefs are included for extreme days when Waimea Bay was the reporting location.

Data and Resources

Field Value
accessLevel public
accrualPeriodicity irregular
bureauCode {006:48}
catalog_@context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
catalog_describedBy https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
identifier Scaled photographs of surf over the full range of breaker sizes on the north shore of Oahu and Jaws, Maui, Hawaiian Islands (NODC Accession 0001753)
language {en-US}
modified 2012-12-08T00:00:00
old-spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-158.108, 20.95], [-156.323, 20.95], [-156.323, 21.692], [-158.108, 21.692], [-158.108, 20.95]]]}
programCode {006:055}
publisher NOAA/NESDIS/NODC/NCDDC (Point of Contact)
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 175d42402d873789f95a2993237596e1b4f45fb0
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-158.108, 20.95], [-156.323, 20.95], [-156.323, 21.692], [-158.108, 21.692], [-158.108, 20.95]]]}
temporal 1998-01-28T00:00:00/2004-05-24T00:00:00
Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • ala-moana
  • amerigeo
  • amerigeoss
  • ckan
  • coastal-studies
  • earth-science-oceans-ocean-waves-wave-height
  • geo
  • geoss
  • hawaiian-islands
  • jaws-peahi
  • maui
  • national
  • north-america
  • north-pacific
  • north-shore
  • numeric-data-sets-oceanography
  • oahu
  • scaled-photograph
  • south-shore
  • sunset-point
  • surf-height
  • surface
  • united-states
  • waimea-bay
  • wave-height
isopen False
license_id notspecified
license_title License not specified
maintainer Mr. Patrick C. Caldwell
maintainer_email caldwell@hawaii.edu
metadata_created 2025-11-21T01:20:37.079669
metadata_modified 2025-11-21T01:20:37.079673
notes Digital surf photographs were scaled using surfers as height benchmarks to estimate the size of the breakers. Historical databases for surf height in Hawaii are recorded in Hawaii Scale Feet (HSF), and these photographs have been used to translate HSF to trough-to-crest heights. Results show the trough-to-crest heights to be double the HSF within a 10-20% margin of error over the full range of possible breaker sizes. This assumes 1) the trough- to-crest height is defined as the highest height reached in the vertical between the crest and the preceding trough at any point along the wave front during breaking and 2) zones of high refraction on outer reefs are included for extreme days when Waimea Bay was the reporting location.
num_resources 2
num_tags 25
title Scaled photographs of surf over the full range of breaker sizes on the north shore of Oahu and Jaws, Maui, Hawaiian Islands (NODC Accession 0001753)