User interface
Questions
Q: Why do I see two rectangles around the area of interest?(A01062104)
Q: How can I retain choices made in previous input screens ? (A01062503)
Q: Why is the selected area in my output screen of a different size than what I chose in the "Offshore location"? (A01070501)
Q: Which browser should I use to work with waveclimate.com ? (A01070602)
Q: Does waveclimate.com demand specific display settings ? (A01102404)
Answers
The "size of the data area" box under Offshore location relates to the area used to select satellite data of significant wave height and wind (the area is irrelevant if you use model data). The area is indicated on the map by a rectangle drawn with a continuous line. If you ask for a table or figure which involves wave periods, wave directions or information about wind-sea or swell, then depending on size of the data area (50 or 100 km) waveclimate.com uses data collected over a larger area (200 km) than what you selected. This larger area is the rectangle drawn with a dashed line. The actual size of the area used is always printed below the tables and graphs.
The reason that satellite data collected over a larger area are used for tables and figures involving wave periods, directions, wind-sea or swell is that these use spectral wave data from SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar), which samples at a much lower density than the other wave height and windspeed sensors. So you need to use data over a larger area in order to obtain a reasonable number of samples
When you set the size of the "data area" (inner rectangle) to 200km, 400km or 500 km, then waveclimate.com does not enlarge the area used for spectral wave data. Choosing an area of only 50km or 100 km wide, will result in an enlarged area for spectral wave data of 200km (the minimal width).
You can retain choices made in preceding input screens by using the standard "back button" of your browser (instead of using the waveclimate.com menu). In this way you will find your inputs as you left them. If you examined a lot of screens in a row, you will have to go back all the way page by page if you do not want to repeat your action of for instance offshore location selection.
You should also check your browser on the amount of pages it holds in memory.
When instead you use the waveclimate.com menu to jump back you will see a fresh, default input screen.
The selected area mentioned under the plot or table on the output screen is larger than the area selected in the "Offshore location" input screen in case you use wave parameters from SAR. The area mentioned in the output screen has actually been used for retrieving SAR data and it corresponds to the outer rectangle drawn in the "Offshore location" input screen. The inner rectangle drawn in the "Offshore location" input screen represents the area choosen in the "Offshore location" input screen. Please refer to the question (Q01062104) on the two rectangles drawn for further details.
You can access waveclimate.com using Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.
The graphical user interface of waveclimate.com does not demand specific display settings in order to function correctly. However, the look-and-feel of the interface has been optimised for Windows and looks best using
- 16-bit colors ("High Color")
- A screen resolution of 1024x768 pixels
- Small fonts