Application of wave drifter to marine environment observation

For marine environment observation, especially for open-sea wave-measuring application, a low cost and small size Wave Drifter is introduced as a preferred wave observing instrument. The Wave Drifter is developed based on Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and deployed in open sea. Based on a single low-cost GPS receiver, the Wave Drifter can provide the standard wave parameters. A Wave Drifter Prototype was launched in the West Pacific area. Wave conditions were recorded especially during Typhoon KROSA (201329). In order to verify the effective of GPS Wave Drifter, comparison between the derived wave parameters and wave model forecast data is carried out. The results show good agreement and discover the underlying applications such as data assimilation into wave forecast models, validation of wave forecast models, calibration of satellite wave sensors and investigation of ocean wave climate and variability.