Page 30: of Marine Technology Magazine (November 2021)

OCEAN INSTRUMENTATION LIDAR BUOYS measure and make publicly available site conditions for the pro? les of the wind speed and direction up to 250 meters offshore wind community. Available on the U.S. Department above the sea surface. In addition to a lidar, each buoy col- of Energy’s Data Archive and Portal (https://a2e.energy.gov/ lects complementary oceanographic and near-surface me- data), which is also managed by PNNL, buoy metocean data teorological data, such as ocean current pro? les and air and are freely accessed and used by offshore wind developers, sea temperature. consultants, regulators, and researchers to validate wind mod- The buoys provide a cost-effective, innovative, and mobile els, improve the understanding of air-sea interactions, reduce solution for gathering the long-term observations needed to uncertainty and risk in characterizing wind resources, and comprehensively characterize the wind resource at diverse lo- support offshore wind siting and design. cations of offshore wind development interest.

After procurement in 2014, the buoys underwent testing at

Data Collection and Analysis PNNL’s Marine and Coastal Research Laboratory in Sequim,

The lidar buoys collect a comprehensive set of metocean Washington. The goal was to assess the performance of all measurements needed for offshore wind resource charac- sensors, power systems, and communications links with the terization. The centerpiece of the instrumentation suite for buoys deployed in a location representative of a real opera- each buoy is a motion-corrected lidar system that provides tional environment.

Schematic of lidar buoy instrumentation

Illustration by Mike Perkins, Paci? c Northwest National Laboratory 30 November/December 2021

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