Wind Sensor Data

The wind direction and speed are measured with either an RM Young 05103 model or Gill Ultrasonic on all ten buoys throughout the Chesapeake Bay. Historically, the First Landing buoy was the only buoy to be equipped with the Gill due to the instrument's durability and the harsh conditions observed at that buoy location.

Wind sensors are deployed on all ten buoys throughout the Chesapeake Bay.

The data is all available free to the public in real-time on the following website: http://buoybay.noaa.gov. The files with custom date ranges are available to download in .csv file format. The data can also be accessed at other sites, including http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/ .

There are no data access constraints and available and free for the public to use.

Currently, the CBIBS data is quality controlled in the CBIBS middleware system acting on incoming data. The data gets associated with a QC flag based on threshold values set for each parameter and the buoy status. The various flags include: -1 = Unknown(NaN), 0 = Good Data, 1 = Buoy Offline, 2 = Hard Limit Test Failed, 3 = Filled Value. The data will continue to be quality controlled in this way until QARTOD (Quality Assurance of Real-Time Ocean Data) standards are implemented or if the QARTOD standards are not used for a particular parameter.

QARTOD QC Tests will be applied in a module of the CBIBS middleware, acting on incoming data at 60 minute intervals and returning resultant flag values, which are stored with the data. Parameters for the tests, which can vary by Buoy, Sensor, Measurement Parameter, and Test Type, are stored in a dynamically accessible and editable QC Test matrix. There are Primary and Secondary Flags; Primary flags represent overall Data Quality, based on QARTOD Tests; Secondary flags complement the first level by providing the justification for the quality flags, based on quality control tests or data processing history.

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All data operations and storage take place on secure FISMA-compliant servers.

The RM Young and Gill both report the wind speed and direction every ten minutes in ASCII string format to the Watchman500. This data string is then sent via a cellular antenna to a shoreside server, which is where it is processed (including assigning Qa/Qc flags). The data is then uploaded to the website in real-time and available to be downloaded.