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Future exploitation of in-situ wave measurements at Station Mike

Future exploitation of in-situ wave measurements at Station Mike
Future exploitation of in-situ wave measurements at Station Mike
As part of a UK-SOLAS (Surface Ocean-Lower Atmosphere Study) project the National Oceanography Centre (NOCS) has instrumented the Norwegian weather ship Polarfront with the directional wave radar “WAVEX”. This system complements the Polarfront’s existing ship borne wave recorder which was installed by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute in 1978. The Polarfront and its predecessors have occupied Station Mike (66°N, 2°E) all year round for nearly 60 years. NOCS also equipped the ship with digital cameras and the autonomous air-sea flux system “AutoFlux”. The NOCS systems were installed in September 2006 and will operate continuously for at least 3 years. Project information and real-time data from the ship can be found via http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/ooc/CRUISES/HiWAS/index.php . The sea-state dataset being obtained on the Polarfront is unparalleled in that the SBWR provides reliable wave height data but no directional information, whereas the wave radar provides excellent directional wave spectra but infers wave heights indirectly. It is believed that, until now, the two systems have never been deployed together for more than brief periods. On Polarfront the two systems provide very comprehensive information on sea state, in a region of the world’s oceans which experience a wide range of conditions (e.g. 3-hourly significant wave height of 15.5 m in November 2001). The main research aim of the project is the parameterisation of the air-sea fluxes, including wind stress, in terms of wind speed, sea state etc. However, the wave data set being collected has potential uses which fall outside the project aims and we would welcome proposals for collaboration from members of the remote sensing and modelling communities. Here we describe initial results which show that the two wave systems agree reasonably well for wave period, but that significant wave heights from the WAVEX are overestimated in the presence of swell.
SBWR, WAVEX, OWS Polarfront, HiWASE
Yelland, M. J.
3b2e2a38-334f-430f-b110-253a0a835a07
Bjorheim, K.
f64bb011-ea0d-48fe-a440-75833e3e863f
Gommenginger, C.
f0db32be-34bb-44da-944b-c6b206ca4143
Moat, B.I.
497dbb18-a98f-466b-b459-aa2c872ad2dc
Yelland, M. J.
3b2e2a38-334f-430f-b110-253a0a835a07
Bjorheim, K.
f64bb011-ea0d-48fe-a440-75833e3e863f
Gommenginger, C.
f0db32be-34bb-44da-944b-c6b206ca4143
Moat, B.I.
497dbb18-a98f-466b-b459-aa2c872ad2dc

Yelland, M. J., Bjorheim, K., Gommenginger, C. and Moat, B.I. (2007) Future exploitation of in-situ wave measurements at Station Mike. JCOMM Scientific and Technical Symposium on Storm Surges, Seoul, Republic of Korea,. 02 - 06 Oct 2007. 11 pp .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

As part of a UK-SOLAS (Surface Ocean-Lower Atmosphere Study) project the National Oceanography Centre (NOCS) has instrumented the Norwegian weather ship Polarfront with the directional wave radar “WAVEX”. This system complements the Polarfront’s existing ship borne wave recorder which was installed by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute in 1978. The Polarfront and its predecessors have occupied Station Mike (66°N, 2°E) all year round for nearly 60 years. NOCS also equipped the ship with digital cameras and the autonomous air-sea flux system “AutoFlux”. The NOCS systems were installed in September 2006 and will operate continuously for at least 3 years. Project information and real-time data from the ship can be found via http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/ooc/CRUISES/HiWAS/index.php . The sea-state dataset being obtained on the Polarfront is unparalleled in that the SBWR provides reliable wave height data but no directional information, whereas the wave radar provides excellent directional wave spectra but infers wave heights indirectly. It is believed that, until now, the two systems have never been deployed together for more than brief periods. On Polarfront the two systems provide very comprehensive information on sea state, in a region of the world’s oceans which experience a wide range of conditions (e.g. 3-hourly significant wave height of 15.5 m in November 2001). The main research aim of the project is the parameterisation of the air-sea fluxes, including wind stress, in terms of wind speed, sea state etc. However, the wave data set being collected has potential uses which fall outside the project aims and we would welcome proposals for collaboration from members of the remote sensing and modelling communities. Here we describe initial results which show that the two wave systems agree reasonably well for wave period, but that significant wave heights from the WAVEX are overestimated in the presence of swell.

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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 2007
Venue - Dates: JCOMM Scientific and Technical Symposium on Storm Surges, Seoul, Republic of Korea,, 2007-10-02 - 2007-10-06
Keywords: SBWR, WAVEX, OWS Polarfront, HiWASE

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 80117
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/80117
PURE UUID: 46f88a46-3418-43ad-8702-57fd7ab04b0f

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Date deposited: 24 Mar 2010
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 00:35

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Contributors

Author: M. J. Yelland
Author: K. Bjorheim
Author: C. Gommenginger
Author: B.I. Moat

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