IOOS wave observations, a national perspective

The 2009 National Operational Wave Observation Plan is being updated in 2012 to reflect the present state of the wave observation network and revised to better define priority placements and upgrades, and to identify the stations with the longest data records. The revised plan, which is based on the existing 200 locations, defines a perimeter Backbone network of observing sites and proposes adding 47 new locations and upgrading the directional wave measurement of 87 stations. 10 Rover Buoys are recommended to be used with one year deployments to evaluate regional wave models so that they can be used as virtual wave gauges. The plan also identifies 60 of the existing US backbone locations with record lengths of 20 years or longer (the longest record is 38 years). These Sentinel Stations are critical to understanding climatic changes to the Nation's wave conditions. In this paper, we review the status of the nation's wave observation network, present a number of proposed changes and describe a process using wave models and short-term wave sensor deployments to optimize the wave observations in a particular region.