Maximum entropy principle and statistical distribution of ocean wave heights

Abstract-This paper concemg an application of a popular existing law, the maximum entropy principle, to the study of statistical distribution of the ocean wave heights.Under two proper premiases, a conclusion that the wave heights obey the Weibull distribution is drawn by making use of the maximum entropy principle.From this result, we hold that the intensic departures using the Rayleigh distribution to describe the realistic wave height must exist, and the Weibull distribution usually used as an empirical one has profound orgin in physics.The Uluhovskii's empirical wave heights distribution relying on water depth is also discussed briefly, and a possible physical explanation associated with the maximum entropy principle is carried out.