9-band Format

As requested by the US Army Corps of Engineers, CDIP reduces the estimated
wave frequency spectra to wave energy (or sea surface variance) in 9 period
bands.

The data files have 15 columns of numbers in the following format.

Column.....Description
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1..............Year (last 2 digits, e.g. 94)
2..............Month
3..............Day
4..............XXYY XX=hour YY=min (PST)
5..............Significant Wave Height (cm)
6..............Peak Period BAND (note:this is different than the peak
period)
7..............22+ sec. wave energy (cm**2)
8..............18-22 sec. wave energy (cm**2)
9..............16-18 sec. wave energy (cm**2)
10............14-16 sec. wave energy (cm**2)
11............12-14 sec. wave energy (cm**2)
12............10-12 sec. wave energy (cm**2)
13............8-10 sec. wave energy (cm**2)
14............6-8 sec. wave energy (cm**2)
15............2-6 sec. (for directional buoys) or 4-6 sec. wave energy
(cm**2)
Note: As of 9-11-2000, we are in the process of changing the band limits for
directional buoys; please e-mail us (www@cdip.ucsd.edu) with any questions.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: Estimates of wave energy contain a certain amount of statistical
uncertainty. This uncertainty is function of wave frequency bandwidth not
period bandwidth. Therefore, the energy estimates in the 9 period bands have
varying confidence limits. In general, the statistical uncertainty gets
progressively smaller as you go from the longer to the shorter wave period
bands (which encompass increasingly larger frequency bandwidths).