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Wind wave
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==Shoaling and refraction== [[File:Ripples Hierkonpolku Reila.jpg|thumb|Waves create [[ripple marks]] in beaches.]] {{main|Wave shoaling|Water wave refraction}} As waves travel from deep to shallow water, their shape changes (wave height increases, speed decreases, and length decreases as wave orbits become asymmetrical). This process is called [[wave shoaling|shoaling]]. Wave [[refraction]] is the process that occurs when waves interact with the sea bed to slow the velocity of propagation as a function of wavelength and period. As the waves slow down in shoaling water, the [[crest (physics)|crest]]s tend to realign at a decreasing angle to the depth contours. Varying depths along a wave crest cause the crest to travel at different [[phase speed]]s, with those parts of the wave in deeper water moving faster than those in [[waves in shallow water|shallow water]]. This process continues while the depth decreases, and reverses if it increases again, but the wave leaving the shoal area may have changed direction considerably. [[Ray tracing (physics)|Rays]]—lines [[normal (geometry)|normal]] to wave crests between which a fixed amount of energy [[flux]] is contained—converge on local shallows and shoals. Therefore, the [[wave energy]] between rays is concentrated as they converge, with a resulting increase in wave height. Because these effects are related to a spatial variation in the phase speed, and because the phase speed also changes with the ambient current—due to the [[Doppler shift]]—the same effects of refraction and altering wave height also occur due to current variations. In the case of meeting an adverse current the wave ''steepens'', i.e. its wave height increases while the wavelength decreases, similar to the shoaling when the water depth decreases.<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1016/0011-7471(64)90001-4 | volume = 11 | issue = 4 | pages = 529–562 | last1 = Longuet-Higgins | first1 = M. S. | author-link = Michael Longuet-Higgins | first2 = R. W. | last2 = Stewart | title = Radiation stresses in water waves; a physical discussion, with applications | journal = Deep-Sea Research | year = 1964 |bibcode = 1964DSRA...11..529L }}</ref>
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