Relaxation rate is a very crucial parameter in physics.For the water surface wave,its relaxation rate is directly relevantto the response time of disturbed spectrum returning back to its quasi-steady state.It is difficult to be calculated directly asa function of different oceanographic and meteorological parameters.Previous researches were mainly based on experimentalmeasurements or parameterization.In this paper,a method based on the liner array charge-coupled device(CCD)is proposed tomeasure the relaxation rate of the water surface wave.Compared with the traditional methods?it can obtain the information ofsurface wave and current synchronously,and works well under a multi wind-wave environment.Wind wav^tank experimentswere carried out based on this method.The good consistency between the results calculated by this method and the traditionalrelaxation rate models shows the validity of the proposed method.This method can be further used to study the modulation theoryof surface waves by currents.
