Overview
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ISDM databases contain over 6 million observed wave spectra from 500 locations in the Canadian area of interest
(35 to 90 degrees north and 40 to 180 degrees west), all of which is available
for direct download from this web site.
The ISDM Wave Climate Study Office
(WCS) was formed in 1971 and for the next 25 years operated an active field program of
wave acquisition. Although the field program has been discontinued, MEDS
continues to process delayed-mode wave data as submitted from researchers, universities, regional institutes and the oil and gas industry
in support marine science activities.
Today, on a daily basis,
ISDM acquires wave
buoy data from buoys operated by the Meteorological Service of Canada MSC
as transmitted through the GOES
satellite network. As well, ISDM acquires wave
buoy data from buoys operating within the Canadian area of interest by the
US National Data Buoy Center NDBC
as transmitted over the GTS
network.
ISDM performs a subjective quality inspection (QC) of each observed wave spectra
prior to update into the database. Flags are assigned to the observed and derived parameters reflecting data
quality. Quality control is performed by
examining the energy distribution of the power spectrum and comparing relative values
of significant wave height and peak period between neighboring buoys.
For the ISDM WCS historical buoy data, wave spectral density (meters squared per Hertz) was obtained
by Fast Fourier Transform of the original 20-minute surface elevation time series
record. There are approximately 60 estimates of spectral density supplied at equal
intervals of frequency between 0.05 and 0.5 Hz. Spectral data from
other data sources may not contain this level of detail. Axys
Environmental Consulting Ltd provides some detail about the buoys used by
the MSC. The
Axys
technical document describes the NOMAD and DISCUS buoys in particular.
Significant wave height is defined as four times the square root of the area under the variance spectrum of the water surface elevation.
The peak period is defined as the inverse of the frequency for which the variance spectrum is a maximum.
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