The measurement of wind speed in high seas by meteorological buoys

Concern has been raised, based on the experiences of the Halloween Storm of 1991, that the wind speeds reported from offshore buoys in high sea states are undervalued. For wave models to accurately reproduce the measured wave heights in storm events it is essential to have an accurate input wind field. A number of factors may affect wind measurement on buoys, but little is known of the magnitude of these effects during high wind and wave conditions. As a result a field program is being undertaken off the west coast of Canada on a 6 m NOMAD Environment Canada Data Buoy. An additional payload package (SWS-1) to measure a variety of parameters at a sampling interval of 2 Hertz has been installed, for monitoring conditions in sea states exceeding 8 m