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ACT Protocols for Wave Measurement Systems
July 2012
14
iii) enclosed large freshwater basin in the Great Lakes, and iv) shallow water with potential
episodic events in the Gulf of Mexico.
The deep water deployment in Monterey Bay will be the first Test and Evaluation task to be
completed. Existing efforts are in place for a co-location exercise with Datawell, NDBC and
MBARI. This JCOMM and NDBC sponsored project was planned for August 2011, pending
funding availability, but its status is unknown at
the time of this writing. While this is not an ACT
sponsored test, it is suggested that the wave
measurement evaluation build on this effort in the
upcoming years by creating a permanent buoy
farm at this location for deep water wave sensor
testing. The continued deployment of the sensors
making up the buoy farm will require continued
operation and maintenance funding to keep the
NDBC buoys deployed in this location. The
sensors deployed for the initial NDBC/JCOMM
co-location project will be retrieved in 2012.
The shallow water deployment at the USACE Field
Research Facility (FRF in Duck, NC), Great Lakes
Deployment, and a Gulf of Mexico deployment
would be the second, third and fourth priorities. The
FRF will serve as the permanent shallow water
evaluation location. Wave sensing instrumentation
from participating manufacturers will be deployed
for a full year at each Test and Evaluation location
to ensure exposure to the full diversity of conditions
for each environment.
9.0 Reference Methods (Task 1)
Unanimous agreement was obtained between both manufactures and the user community that to
implement a practical, in-situ, field Test and Evaluation, no absolute standard exists for
determination of the First-5 Fourier components of the incident wave field across all spatial
domains. An exception to this observation may exist in one coastal (shallow water) and one
intermediate/deep water location. In the coastal region, the USACE Field Research Facility
(FRF) provides a unique measurement opportunity as well as long time series data of wind and
waves. At the FRF, the Long Linear Array exists in 8 meters water depth which provides
excellent directional resolution of the incident wave directional spectra. Similarly, in deep water,
the Conoco Phillips off-shore platform Ekofisk, in the North Sea provides a stable platform in a
water depth of 70 meters encompassing a Laser Array (LASAR), providing direct measures of
wave height, period and direction through a wide range of frequencies. These two unique
facilities will be utilized in providing direct comparison for the proposed “reference standard.”