Page 25: of Marine Technology Magazine (November 2025)

RESEARCH FELLOW MARZIEH DERKANI AND PROJECT LEAD AT TIDE

DR JEFF HANSEN WITH ONE OF THE DRIFTING BUOYS.

Images this page: UWA

They provide data crucial for forecasting wave and swell conditions, says Dr Jeff Hansen. “These new low-cost wave buoys now make it possible to collected detailed wave data, in real-time, from the middle of the ocean, where histori- cally we haven’t had observations of waves. This allows us to compare and feed these data into wave forecasting models to improve their accuracy, something we’re working on with the Bureau of Meteorology.”

Wave forecasting models lag behind atmospheric models in terms of accuracy partly due to the lack of data assimilation, a technique where observations are used to adjust models to

A NETWORK OF WAVE BUOYS IS HELPING better match actual conditions.

RESEARCHERS UNDERSTAND THE “If the starting point is wrong, the rest of the forecast is likely

PROCESSES AND CHANGES DRIVEN BY to be wrong,” says Hansen. “Forecasting is inherently dif