The study looked at ocean wave data in the Bay of Bengal from 1958 to 2001. Researchers used a method called Rotated Empirical Orthogonal Function (REOF) analysis to find patterns in the data. They found that REOF was better at showing localized structures compared to the traditional method, Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis. The first patterns identified by REOF explained a large percentage of the variability in wave height, especially during the monsoon seasons in July and December.