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As a key factor in the ocean energy development, particularly for preventing and reducing disaster, the analysis of gust characteristic is necessary. This study presents the characteristics of annual and seasonal wind speed, gust wind speed in the western Pacific region, using the CCMP wind data and ERA-interim gust data. Results show that, (1) There is a good consistency in annual variation between the averaged wind speed and averaged gust, while a great difference with the maximum gust. (2) The averaged wind speed for 35 years in the nearshore is smaller than that in the off-shore. There is a large value belt in Ryukyu Islands -- Taiwan Island -- the traditional South China Sea gale center, with two obvious large centers (about 7.5-8.0 m/s) located in the Taiwan Strait, the traditional South China Sea gale center. The large area of maximum annual mean gust (> 50 m/s) is mainly locates in the broad ocean of the east of Taiwan, (3) There is an obvious seasonal difference of the average wind speed, average gust and maximum gust. The average gust has noticeable monthly variation, the peak usually appears in November and the trough mainly appearing in summer. There is also a noticeable monthly variation for the maximum gust. In the middle and south of the South China Sea, the maximum gust is <16 m/s in each month. In the most part of the western Pacific region, the peak value of maximum gust appearing is in October and August, it is about 14-24 m/s in other months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequent leveling data of beach profiles is collected from Nanwan Beach, which is characterized by a large seasonal variation in wave climate. Variability of the bar crest position obtained from the data of measured profiles is examined to quantify seasonal changes of the sandbar by empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis. The first eigenfunction showed that a rhythmic bar is a common feature of the beach all year round. The second eigenfunction effectively indicated that the two-dimensional variability of the bar behavior is of seasonal changes. The cross-shore bar movement ranged -30∼40 and -2∼60 m in summer and in winter, respectively. The next two eigenfunctions represented three-dimensional components of the bar behavior with a range of -21∼21 and -30∼21 m in summer and in winter, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]