Sea state

In oceanography, sea state is the general condition of the free surface on a large body of water—with respect to wind waves and swell—at a certain location and moment.

The sea state can be assessed either by an experienced observer (like a trained mariner) or by using instruments like weather buoys, wave radar or remote sensing satellites.

In the case of buoy measurements, the statistics are determined for a time interval in which the sea state can be considered to be constant.

The large number of variables involved in creating and describing the sea state cannot be quickly and easily summarized, so simpler scales are used to give an approximate but concise description of conditions for reporting in a ship's log or similar record.

From the long and short-term statistical distributions, it is possible to find the extreme values expected in the operating life of a ship.