Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) manages two AXYS WindSentinel buoys (Buoys #120 and #130) on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that collect a comprehensive set of meteorological and oceanographic (metocean) data to support resource characterization for wind energy offshore. The buoys have been deployed off the California coast in partnership with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) from September 2020 through October 2021. One buoy was deployed within the Morro Bay Call Area offshore central California; the other buoy was deployed within the Humboldt Call Area off the coast of northern California. The measurements from the buoys are used to characterize the metocean conditions near potential locations for offshore wind lease areas and are uploaded to DOE’s Data Archive and Portal (DAP). Plots are updated on the DAP webpage to visualize the recent metocean measurements. This document serves as a data dictionary – or reference guide – for understanding and interpreting the data available from the buoys. This document includes:
• specifications for the buoy instrumentation (Section 2.0)
• description of each plot and definition of measured parameters (Section 3.0)
• description of data files and naming convention (Appendix A)
• reference guide of measurements and variables (Appendix B)