Episodic wave data capture with miniaturized instrumentation

Obtaining ocean wave data has traditionally been an expensive undertaking. Deployments are. often open-ended, because extreme conditions are often the most important to measure. Advances in electronic miniaturization have produced wave instrumentation, with impressive memory and telemetry capabilities, that are very small and inexpensive. Descriptions of miniature wave gages and logistics for this new approach are provided. Benefits and costs of present and potential applications are analyzed to determine this new wave measurement methodology´s value. Particularly for applications where it is critical to capture specific events, savings of more than an order of magnitude can be realized using episodic, or event-deployed, data collection.