Abstract
In this study, we made an attempt to clarify the influence of sea ice on wind waves in Sea of Okhotsk by using sea ice area and sea ice volume data sets estimated from stellite images. The Ekman spiral was confirmed to control the differene of the directions between wind and wave from the meteorological data and wave direction data in the coastal area of Sea of Okhotsk. It was found from sea ice and wave height data that the more the sea ice exists, the less the wave height is induced, especially, in the southern part of Sea of Okhotsk. In addition, sea ice volume is revealed to be more influencial compared to sea ice area by using the simple model equations proposed in this study. As one of the most significant results, when there is no sea ice in winter season, significant wave height is found to become more than twice as large as the case when sea ice exists the greatest.
