Stonewall Banks Data Buoy

Burner · 07-19-2003, 05:19 AM

I think this bouy is messed up. It consistantly reports Dominant wave periods in the 5-6 sec range on days when the forcast is for 13-14 seconds and everyone is reporting back that the ocean was "lake Pacific." Right now it is reporting 5 secs, but the Port Orford buoy and the CR buoy are reporting 14 seconds. The Newport cameras show a lot of what looks like seriously flat ocean. How can one plan to be sick

with faulty information? NOAA needs to quit going with the lowest bidder when buying buoys.

James

Sensei-san · 07-21-2003, 04:51 AM

Burner, Sometimes it gets confused from all the wakes that hit it from the tuna boats racing to get to tunatown. No, seriously, sometimes it is simple physics. If the ocean is flat the buoy will just bob up and down instead of rocking back and forth. The sensors inside are not calibrated to detect bobbing as well as rocking. Best to look at all the data that it is reporting like wind speed and wave height.