Title: Can wave direction be measured from an AUV?

B. Brumley and B. Strong

RD Instruments
9855 Business Park Ave.
San Diego, CA, USA 92131
BBrumley@rdinstruments.com
BStrong@rdinstruments.com

E. Terray
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Woods Hole Ma, 02543
eterray@whoi.edu

AUVs on survey missions in coastal environments provide platforms of opportunity for making directional wave observations. However, there are several complications that arise when wave observations are made from a moving platform. One of these is a Doppler shift in the dispersion relation, which causes correctable distortion in the observed directional wave spectrum. A modified triplet algorithm is described that corrects for platform motion by subtracting bottom-track velocity. The Doppler distortion effect and the algorithm are illustrated using data taken using an ADCP on a moving platform.