84th AMS Annual Meeting

Wednesday, 14 January 2004
Wave observation system for the Puerto Rican coastline
Hall AB
Mykola Vysotskyy, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, PR; and R. G. Williams
Poster PDF (322.1 kB)
The National Weather Service in San Juan receives four times a day wave model output for the Puerto Rican regional coastal waters generated by NCEP's WaveWatch III model. These predictions are often unreliable mainly due to the fact that in-situ observations are not available for the coastal regions of Puerto Rico. These observations are required for calibration and validation of the wave model predictions. Over the past several years a group of researchers under Dr. Robert Holman of Oregon State University has developed a technique of using data from video cameras that record conditions in the coastal zone to extract information about wave height, direction, and period. It is proposed to implement a similar approach and develop an algorithm for processing the video data. The data will be recorded in daylight by a video camera and processed by an algorithm in real time. This algorithm will process images of the coastal zone at a specific site and produce output that includes estimates of wave parameters, such as period and direction.

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