Spar buoy

A diagram of an anchored spar buoy

A spar buoy is a tall, thin buoy that floats upright in the water and is characterized by a small water plane area and a large mass. Because they tend to be stable ocean platforms, spar buoys are popular for making oceanographic measurements. Adjustment of the water plane area and the mass allows spar buoys to be tuned so they tend to not respond to wave forcing.[1] This characteristic differentiates them from large water plane area buoys[2] such as discus buoys that tend to be wave followers. Spar buoys are often used as stable platforms for wave measurement devices[3] and air–sea interaction measurements.[4] Spar buoys range in length from a few feet[5] to the 354-foot (108 meter) RP FLIP. To avoid the difficulties inherent with shipboard launch and recovery, helicopter deployment of large spar buoys has been studied.[6]

  1. ^ Venezia, W.A.; Clark, A.M.; Schmitt, K.F. (6 August 2002) [18–21 October 1993]. Development of a six degree of freedom buoy design and analysis program with validating data. OCEANS '93. Engineering in Harmony with Ocean. Vol. 1. Victoria, BC, Canada. pp. 390–394. doi:10.1109/OCEANS.1993.325978. ISBN 0-7803-1385-2. INSPEC Accession Number: 4764203.
  2. ^ A.M. Clark; W. A. Venezia (1998). Development of a 10-m Diesel Powered Life Support and Communications Buoy for the Aquarius 2000 Habitat. Ocean Community Conference '98. Washington, DC. ISBN 0-933957-23-8.
  3. ^ Drennan, W.M.; H.C. Graber; M.A. Donelan; E.A. Terray (6 August 2002) [28 September-1 October 1998]. Directional wave measurements from the ASIS (Air-Sea Interaction Spar) buoy. OCEANS '98 Conference. Vol. 1. Nice, France. pp. 414–418. doi:10.1109/OCEANS.1998.725779. ISBN 0-7803-5045-6. INSPEC Accession Number: 6201719.
  4. ^ Graber, Hans C.; Terray, Eugene A.; Donelan, Mark A.; Drennan, William M.; Van Leer, John C.; Peters, Donald B. (1 January 2000). "ASIS - A new Air-Sea Interaction Spar buoy: Design and performance at sea". Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology. 17 (5). Boston, MA: American Meteorological Society: 708–720. Bibcode:2000JAtOT..17..708G. doi:10.1175/1520-0426(2000)017<0708:AANASI>2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0739-0572. S2CID 124826484.
  5. ^ Nelson, C.V. (6 August 2002) [18–21 September 1989]. An Easily Deployed, Low Cost And Light-weight Spar Buoy For Making High Frequency Wave Height Measurements. OCEANS '89. Vol. 5. pp. 1421–1423. doi:10.1109/OCEANS.1989.587092.
  6. ^ Pellegrini, R.R.; Venezia, W.A. (6 August 2002) [18–21 October 1993]. Design, construction, and load testing of a large scale helicopter deployed spar buoy. OCEANS '93. Engineering in Harmony with Ocean. Vol. 2. Victoria, BC , Canada. pp. 140–145. doi:10.1109/OCEANS.1993.326081. ISBN 0-7803-1385-2. INSPEC Accession Number: 4800652.