Year-long buoy-based observations of the air–sea transition zone off the US west coast

Krishnamurthy, Raghavendra; García Medina, Gabriel; Gaudet, Brian; Gustafson Jr., William I.; Kassianov, Evgueni I.; Liu, Jinliang; Newsom, Rob K.; Sheridan, Lindsay M.; Mahon, Alicia M.

doi:10.5194/essd-15-5667-2023

Title: Year-long buoy-based observations of the air–sea transition zone off the US west coast

Journal Article · 13 December 2023 · Earth System Science Data (Online)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5667-2023 · OSTI ID:2229969

;

; Gaudet, Brian;

; Kassianov, Evgueni I.; Liu, Jinliang; Newsom, Rob K.;

; Mahon, Alicia M.

Abstract. Two buoys equipped with Doppler lidars owned by the US Department of Energy (DOE) were deployed off the coast of California in autumn of 2020 by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The buoys collected data for an entire annual cycle at two offshore locations proposed for offshore wind development by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. One of the buoys was deployed approximately 50 km off the coast near Morro Bay in central California in 1100 m of water. The second buoy was deployed approximately 40 km off Humboldt County in northern California in 625 m of water. The buoys provided the first-ever continuous measurements of the air–sea transition zone off the coast of California. The atmospheric and oceanographic characteristics of the area and estimates of annual energy production at both the Morro Bay and Humboldt wind energy areas show that both locations have a high wind energy yield and are prime locations for future floating offshore wind turbines. This article provides a description and comprehensive analysis of the data collected by the buoys, and a final post-processed dataset is uploaded to a data archive maintained by the DOE. Additional analysis was conducted to show the value of the data collected by the DOE buoys. All post-processed data from this study are available on the Wind Data Hub website: https://a2e.energy.gov/data# (last access: 14 September 2023). Near-surface, wave, current, and cloud datasets for Humboldt and Morro Bay are provided at https://doi.org/10.21947/1783807 (Krishnamurthy and Sheridan, 2023b) and https://doi.org/10.21947/1959715 (Krishnamurthy and Sheridan, 2023a), respectively. Lidar datasets for Humboldt and Morro Bay are provided at https://doi.org/10.21947/1783809 (Krishnamurthy and Sheridan, 2023d) and https://doi.org/10.21947/1959721 (Krishnamurthy and Sheridan, 2023c), respectively.

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Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830

OSTI ID:: 2229969

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2246581

Journal Information:: Earth System Science Data (Online), Journal Name: Earth System Science Data (Online) Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 15; ISSN 1866-3516

Publisher:: Copernicus GmbHCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: Germany

Language:: English

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