A GENERALIZED TOOL FOR WAVE-BY-WAVE ESTIMATION OF NEARSHORE WAVE BREAKING DISSIPATION FROM OPTICAL IMAGERY

Wave breaking is one of the most relevant forcing mechanisms on the nearshore, which is strongly related to its dissipation (Holman and Haller, 2013). Its quantification from direct data synoptically over large domains is difficult, and remote sensing systems may add into this regard. However, the problem is compounded because estimating dissipation on a wave-by-wave basis requires the coupling of two largely independent steps. First, the identification of the breaking portion of the wave, and next, the use of a proper dissipation model that can use some of the parameters provided by the remote sensing platform. Finally, there is the problem of how to validate these results.