Wave buoy arrays deployed for Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton

The NOPP Hurricane Coastal Impacts 3A teams successfully deployed over 60 wave buoys in rapid response to Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. Following past successes, the deployments were conducted from P3 aircraft operated by the US Navy VXS-1 Scientific Development Squadron.

The team worked directly with VXS-1 to select drop points that would place the buoys in the direct path of each hurricane, with the goal of measuring the ocean waves that contribute to destructive storm surge at the coast. The wave measurements also inform the exchange between the ocean and atmosphere that is key to the evolution (and possible intensification) of hurricanes.

The maps below show the locations of the buoys, with each type indicated by symbol/color. The track of the hurricane is shown in black, with shading for wind speed swath width and numbers/colors for strength category along the track. The DWSD are Directional Wave Surface Drifters from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The Spotter buoys and Submersibles are from Sofar Ocean — the Submersibles were developed specifically to measure water levels during these events. The MicroSWIFTs are from the Applied Physics Lab at the University of Washington.