Ed Sloane, 1544679350
Excellent stuff.
Bnkref, 1544686225
Interesting comment about them expecting that swells will tend more southerly over time. Good result for the Surf Coast!
greyhound, 1544686796
Big oil related????
JJD, 1544686897
So I'm assuming they're cheaper.
Nick Bone, 1544691451
Is the pin where its uhhh pinned, is that the actual location?
Also, what info would it provide for surfers? I.E Sorell can provide a bit of indication on what's too come.
I rarely use Pt. Nepean living on the Peninsula..
Phantom, 1544693112
The location of the bouy at Port Fairy looks like it could be a bit sheltered from westerly swells
uncle_leroy, 1544694089
Dr Daniel Lerodiaconou,
Can you please confirm who has given funding for this project at the very start of the paper trail?
Is it just a coincidence that new wave bouy's are also being established along the WA south coast, also by a University group? http://wawaves.org/
What's that.......? with further offshore bouys planned way way out beyond any usable depth to recreational or commercial fishers. Why would they want to install wave bouys at an ocean depth of 2,000m....?????
Or is that just a thankyou present from the Offshore Energy Security program and the New Petroleum program for the 19,000km of seismic reflection data obtained off the WA coast?
WA Fisheries Marine park brochure even shows "Sponsored by Chevron", go figure
strictlybizness, 1544737692
This is great. Does Swellnet have plans to integrate live observations from these buoys?
thermalben, 1544738040
We do, but the problem is that Australia's buoy network is covered by around ten different agencies, which therefore requires negotiating access with each of them (i.e. no point teeing up a feed of Vic buoys if we can't do the same in Qld, WA, SA, NSW etc).
It's a complex, time consuming task that costs a not-insignificant amount of $$ (to access the data and coordinate the feeds) and ultimately doesn't generate any revenue for our business.
So.. it's very hard to prioritise over our enormous list of other things we've got to do.
But.. I am keen!
stunet, 1544749425
Not necessarily. I don't think the pin on the website is that accurate. I referred back to the interview and Dr Dan said the buoy is dropped in thirty metres of water, which, referring to Navionics charts, places it somewhere south of the pin's location and not as sheltered.
thermalben, 1544750317
Buoy data from deep water locations is equally as important as coastal locations, in order to validate wave models, and build climate databases. The BOM/IMOS had a buoy - the 'Southern Ocean Flux Station' - moored almost 600km SW of Tasmania in water depths of 4.6km (!) for around 13 months. It wasn't recording wave heights, but instead wind, temperature, humidity, air pressure, sunlight and rain.
uncle_leroy, 1544752995
I get what your saying and yes it may be a 'nice to have' but seems like a waste of money. Can't believe they spent all that money off Tassie yet forgot to include wave data, that in itself seems like a wasted opportunity.
I'm sure 99.99% of the population would much rather have nearshore data. The cost for the one 600km off Tassie could have provided permanent inshore bouy(s)?
Shipping paths along the southern coast here are approx. 20-40km offshore (100-400m depth) and if they don't know what the weather is doing with all forecast data available then they shouldn't be on the ocean. No need for bouys further out.
Working on 3rds principal when anchoring for depth/current/wave, 3 km deep = 9km of rope and chain, seems like a waste of tax payers money, unless Oil and Gas is paying the bills....
thermalben, 1544753580
The fact is that a tiny fraction of the population (i.e. taxpayers) have any need for wave data, so funding for wave buoys is allocated proportionally to other weather services.
Some of our wave buoys are funded through shipping and oil companies (via specialist Met/Ocean companies), as they're the ones who really need that level of data.
As for your comment: "Shipping paths along the southern coast here are approx. 20-40km offshore (100-400m depth) and if they don't know what the weather is doing with all forecast data available then they shouldn't be on the ocean. No need for bouys further out."
If that were the case, then why do we need radar, satellite and AWS data from remote regions where there are no people, and radiosonde data from weather ballons? Because, it all helps to fill in the gaps in the global data set, which ultimately helps to improve the accuracy of the weather models.
The fact is that a deep water buoy will in many instances be better at validating wave model data than a near-shore buoy, becase of the additional complex processes close to the coast (which the models don't always resolve very well).
aussieguy, 1544753707
Would be great to see some of our industry leaders stepping up with sponsorship for some of these buoys. Giving back a bit to the community. Rip Curl sponsoring the Bells Beach wave buoy for the duration of the Rip Curl Pro comp would be great to see.
thermalben, 1544754856
How about another industry like fishing? There are significantly more recreational fishers than surfers in Australia, and the commercial fishing industry is an obvious beneficiary of the data (to that end, the Cape Sorell buoy receives resource support from the Strahan fishing community).
Cleantones, 1544756900
I've been keeping a close eye on the Port Fairy buoy and correlating the data with local conditions. What has been most interesting is the difference that a longer period makes to a decent swell. I knew theoretically that period changes the way breaking waves behave, but being able to see this happen with the data in real time has been an eye-opener.
Nick Bone, 1544784066
Im watching this space.
I believe in period more than height.
aussieguy, 1544833594
Good point. You could also probably look at the sailing industry too.
Excellent article, though, and great to see Swellnet reporting on this.
indo-dreaming, 1544837432
Especially in Victoria high period swell be it small or big generally equals good waves on reefs and beachies.
East coast Australia though, beachies generally break good even best on short period swells.
tubeshooter, 1544863228
@thermalben ,, With all due respect ,,I don't agree that "the commercial fishing industry is an obvious beneficiary" . to the introduction of waverider buoys.., certainly not as a whole. A large percentage of commercial fishing is done by guys with years of local sea and weather knowledge . Bouys are usually only sporadically used to assess bar conditions in suspect conditions, Hardly a game changer. Most guys I know treat the data with caution and always go with their own best judgement, or if not someone elses. Commercial fishermen generally have a network of people with real time information with actual boots on the ground , so to speak. ,
Perhaps you should include as contributors to future wave buoys commercial surf forecasting/reporting websites that will profit from the modelling data mentioned.
indo-dreaming, 1544908122
Yesterday the buoy registered something at a period of 34 seconds?
Obviously couldn't be a wave...maybe a speed boat passed very close?
thermalben, 1544909329
Erroneous data occurs across all buoys (though, wake from a speedboat would be very short periods).
Check MHL's Eden buoy for ongoing incorrect period data. Though in this case suggests a faulty sensor.
http://new.mhl.nsw.gov.au/data/realtime/wave/Buoy-edenow
thermalben, 1544909375
We'll have to agree to disagree, mate.
indo-dreaming, 1544925354
Ok thanks....
tubeshooter, 1544942406
We could do that . I thought you'd like to back that statement with some substance.
tubeshooter, 1544942947
the exact reason commercial fishermen don't rely on them
tubeshooter, 1544955012
commercial fisho's don't sit around on their phones and laptops wondering what the ocean is doing.,, looks pretty shitty tonight , glad I,m not out there. cheers to the boys that are. stay safe.
stunet, 1544955240
I'm currently reading a book on the history of Datawell, the company that make Waverider buoys, and the North Sea fishing fleets - Datawell is Danish - greatly depend on the buoy networks. In fact the fishing fleets have driven some of the innovation, especially in regards to communication.
tubeshooter, 1544958496
Sounds like good reading.. I'd be interested in that. Buoys in certain locations are definitely beneficial to many fisho's. My only point is it far from benefits the majority. , and yes some of the technology certainly came from the fishing industry , which is also why I question that the fishing industry pay further. Our collective fees support these programs whether they affect our areas or not. cheers
spuddyjack, 1545006553
Really interesting stuff Ben. Thanks for chasing up Dr Daniel Ierodiaconou for more detail. Hope Swellnet can integrate the data into its mix at some stage . . . but also painfully aware you've got plenty of other pressing matters to deal with. Please keep up the good work; anything linked to wave science and bathymetry is knowledge gained.
Jamyardy, 1571568983
I just noticed the DOT had installed a wave buoy not far from Exmouth (Tantabiddi), should be able to track swell up the west coast of WA now, and may even provide precursors to Indo swells.
thermalben, 1571569406
They've had buoys on and off at Exmouth for quite some time.
We previously had access to buoy data from a gas rig off the NW Shelf for a period, which was also quite useful for Indo.
Jamyardy, 1571630715
Cheers Ben, I was unaware of the previous swell buoys around Exmouth. According to the DOT site, the last one was decommissioned at the end of 2011. They did however have one at Ningaloo (until Nov 1988), and Coral Bay (until end of March 2005), so quiet a ways back for those. I would imagine the swell direction off the NW shelf would have been predominantly West, even WNW … wrapping back toward the coastline if the rig(s) were on the continental shelf. Interesting how the medium size SSW swell around Margs Fri/Sat hardly made an impact on the current Exmouth Buoy, I guess the shorter period swells don't travel very far (or too south to get in), even Rotto was tiny on the buoy, maybe 1.5m, when Albany hit 5m, and Naturaliste 4m.