The Australian marine research, industry, and stakeholder community has recently undertaken an extensive collaborative process to identify the highest national priorities for wind-waves research. This was undertaken under the auspices of the Forum for Operational Oceanography Surface Waves Working Group. The main steps in the process were first, soliciting possible research questions from the community via an online survey; second, reviewing the questions at a face-to-face workshop; and third, online ranking of the research questions by individuals. This process resulted in 15 identified priorities, covering research activities and the development of infrastructure. The top five priorities are 1) enhanced and updated nearshore and coastal bathymetry; 2) improved understanding of extreme sea states; 3) maintain and enhance the in situ buoy network; 4) improved data access and sharing; and 5) ensemble and probabilistic wave modeling and forecasting. In this paper, each of the 15 priorities is discussed in detail, providing insight into why each priority is important, and the current state of the art, both nationally and internationally, where relevant. While this process has been driven by Australian needs, it is likely that the results will be relevant to other marine-focused nations.
The expanding capability of low-cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV's) and coincident developments in low-cost wave measurement buoys, necessitates research toward their possible integration. A new (mobile buoy) device that will be a product of such integration is expected to provide a utility in rapid measurements from an expended area of observation when data comes from water surface as well from the bulk of the water column. A targeted literature review was conducted to evaluate the technical feasibility of this technical solution. Amongst many challenges of designing and manufacturing this novel instrument two main technical difficulties have been identified, viz., (i) intermittent and contingent uncertainties in measurements emerging due to the interaction of a UAV airframe with the water surface within a wave environment, and (ii) the relatively poor performance of in-built MEMS accelerometer as a primary device to measure surface acceleration. A technical prototype of this instrument was developed to validate and overcome these difficulties. The prototype was tested in both laboratory and field trial, affirming feasibility of the solution. The prototype endured the sea environment functionally uninhibited, remaining watertight, stable in temperature, and stable against rotation. The prototype acceleration signals were processed and compared with control displacement data. Overall, the prototype comparative performance was reasonable, however it gradually declined with increased wave pattern complexity. This manifested as emerging instrumentation noise, causing erroneous distribution of energy at higher frequencies and moving down an upper wave frequency limit of measurements resulting in a greater demand for calibration. Figure 1. Prototype of UAV mobile buoy for surface waves measurements.
The Australian Forum for Operational Oceanography (FOO), started in 2015, established a working group to focus on wind-waves. One of the aims of this working group was to identify the key priorities of wind-waves research. This undertaking has been driven by Australian needs, but Australia is just one part of the larger international waves community; results of this process are also relevant to other marine-focused nations.The process to identify research priorities engaged both researchers and stakeholders in a democratic, collaborative, and iterative Priorities forWind-Waves Research
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.