Concepts for an ideal ocean wave-measuring buoy

Abstract

A survey of several national buoy wave data collection programs is given to establish a rough idea of the state of the art in automated wave data acquisition systems, including buoys, sensors and techniques. The largest program is that of the National Data Buoy Center, managed under the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; however, the most popular commercial wave buoy is Datawell B.V.'s Waverider®, followed by the OCEANOR Wavescan buoy. These two buoy types have been deployed around the world by several countries. The latest technique for wave measurement from buoys, done independently by the United States, the Netherlands, Japan and South Africa, uses displacements obtained from the Global Positioning System constellation of polar orbiting satellites. Communications systems using geosynchronous and low earth orbiting satellites and ground radio are discussed. Three concepts for improving the quality of wave data from buoys are presented.