Paper published on our open source project, Open Wave Height Logger

Typically, measuring ocean wave conditions can require some fairly expensive equipment, or relies on distant wave buoys or computer models that may not give the best picture of your local field site. We designed the Open Wave Height Logger to provide researchers with a low-cost and long-duration pressure sensor data logger that could be used to reconstruct wave heights and sea state. The results of this project are available in our open access paper published in Limnology and Oceanography: Methods.

The electronic circuit board designs are made freely available, as well as the software to run the device, which is derived from the Arduino open source hardware project. The sensor and batteries get housed in a homemade PVC plumbing pipe housing. More information can be found on the project’s Github repository and at http://owhl.org which contains a wealth of information on all of the assembly, programming, and deployment methods we’ve come up with during the course of this project.

An early OWHL prototype after spending 1 month in the Monterey Bay.