Reflection of Ocean Surface Gravity Waves from a Natural Beach

The energy of seaward and shoreward propagating ocean surface gravity waves on a natural beach was estimated with data from an army of 24 bottom-mounted pressure sensors in 13-m water depth, 2 km from the North Carolina coast. Consistent with a parameterization of surface wave reflection from a plane sloping beach by Miche, the ratio of seaward to shoreward propagating energy in the swell-sea frequency band (0.044–0.20 Hz) decreased with increasing wave frequency and increasing wave height, and increased with increasing beach-face slope. Although most incident swell-sea energy dissipated in the surf zone, reflection was sometimes significant (up to 18% of the incident swell-sea energy) when the beach face was steep (at high tide) and the wave field was dominated by low-energy, low-frequency swell. Frequency-directional spectra show that reflection of swell and sea was approximately specular. The ratio of seaward to shoreward propagating energy in the infragravity frequency band (0.010–0.044 Hz) varied between about 0.5 and 3 and increased with increasing swell energy. This trend suggests that infragravity waves generated in very shallow water, and refractively trapped on the sloping seabed, are significantly dissipated over a 50-km wide shelf during storms.