Experimental study of the statistical properties of directionally spread ocean waves measured by buoys

Wave-following buoys are used to provide measurements of free surface elevation across the oceans. The measurements they produce are widely used to derive wave-averaged parameters such as significant wave height and peak period, alongside wave-by-wave statistics such as crest height distributions. Particularly concerning the measurement of extreme wave crests, these measurements are often perceived to be less accurate. We directly assess this through a side-by-side laboratory comparison of measurements made using Eulerian wave gauges and model wave-following buoys for randomly generated directionally spread irregular waves representative of extreme conditions on deep water. This study builds on the recent work of McAllister & van den Bremer, (2019, JPO), in which buoy measurements of steep directionally spread focused waves groups were considered. Our experiments confirm that the motion of a wave-following buoy should not significantly affect the measured wave crest statistics or spectral parameters, and that discrepancies observed for in-situ buoy data are most likely a result of filtering. This filtering occurs when accelerations that are measured by the sensors within a buoy are converted to displacements. We present an approximate means of correcting the resulting measured crest height distributions, which is shown to be effective using our experimental data