Das Projekt "WAM (Wellenmodellierung): Fundamentale Aspekte der Ozean-Wellen-Modellierung zur Applikation in einem Modell der Dritten Generation" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie durchgeführt. In recent years the European wave modelling community has developed a new third generation wave model (WAM). This model, based on physical principles, compares favourably with existing second generation models. To make further progress, it is necessary to get a better insight in the air-sea and sea-bottom interaction processes, that determine wave growth and attenuation. Fundamental research into these processes will lead to a better parametrization of the source terms in the wave model and thus to a better performance. In the proposed research an important role will be played by data assimilation, enabling the use of ERS-1 satellite data.