WaveAR: A software tool for calculating parameters for water waves with incident and reflected components

The ability to determine wave heights and phases along a spatial domain is vital to understanding a wide range of littoral processes. The software tool presented here employs established Stokes wave theory and sampling methods to calculate parameters for the incident and reflected components of a field of weakly nonlinear waves, monochromatic at first order in wave slope and propagating in one horizontal dimension. The software calculates wave parameters over an entire wave tank and accounts for reflection, weak nonlinearity, and a free second harmonic. Currently, no publicly available program has such functionality. The included MATLAB-based open source code has also been compiled for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems. An additional companion program, VirtualWave, is included to generate virtual wave fields for WaveAR. Together, the programs serve as ideal analysis and teaching tools for laboratory water wave systems. & 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.