An Analog Wave Spectrum Analyzer System for Operational Buoys

In 1975, the NOAA Data Buoy Office (NDBO) began deploying a data acquisition system identified as the Prototype Environmental Buoy (PEB) payload on their operational buoys. This payload could report environmental data from remote ocean areas to shore through radio telemetry, but could only receive data inputs in the form of analog voltages. Digital data could not be accommodated. NDBO subsequently developed a wave measurement system specially designed to interface with the PEB payload. This Wave Spectrum Analyzer (WSA) system consisted of 12 parallel analog filters, each of which produced an output voltage related to the spectral density in the vicinity of the center frequency of the filter. Duplicates of this WSA system have since been deployed on a number of operational deep-ocean buoys and have produced wave data routinely.