A new wave directional spectrum measurement instrument

An instrument for high accuracy measurement of wave directional spectra was designed and implemented. The instrument, called the 3D-ACM WAVE, combines an acoustic current meter and a high accuracy micromachined pressure sensor into a single instrument. The instrument measures two orthogonal horizontal components of current velocity and the pressure at the deployment depth. Data is collected, and sequences of these three measurements are used to determine wave spectra, based on readily available spectral analysis techniques. The sampling rate of the 3D-ACM WAVE is 5.36 Hz, allowing a wide spectral range for wave characterization. Field results from ocean deployments show that the data collected by the instrument can be successfully used to calculate wave directional spectra. The field results, which are presented in this paper, compare favorably with results acquired using other proven techniques