Monitoring and analysis of the wave climate in Brandon Bay

The project involves the deployment of a waverider buoy in the centre of Brandon Bay, Co. Kerry, to determine the wave climate in the bay. The buoy, which will remain in place for at least one year, measures wave height, wave direction, wave period, and water temperature. The shoreline in Brandon Bay undergoes erosion due to storm surges and extreme waves associated with storm events. The data collected by the waverider will provide information on wave characteristics during such events and will be used to support two other MaREI projects focused on determining current and future shoreline changes in Brandon bay – (1) the ShoreCam project focused on monitoring shoreline changes and (2) a PhD project focused on developing a couple wave-tide-morphology modelling system to predict shoreline changes.

The waverider buoy was provided by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland and was deployed in December 2020 by the Marine Institute. The cost of deployment and maintenance is jointly funded by SFI MaREI, NUI Galway and the Marine Institute. The data collected by the buoy is available to the public and other researchers via Ireland’s Digital Ocean website www.digitalocean.ie, a web portal to view data collected in and around Ireland’s maritime zone.