HF radar wind, wave and current measurements for offshore wind power

This paper presents metocean data from the University of Plymouth WERA HF radar using the Seaview Sensing software package. Comparisons of wave data are made with data from a directional wave buoy and of wind data with a coastal anemometer. Qualitative good agreement is demonstrated and it is shown that quantitive statistics mostly meet published international standards requirements for such measurements for offshore wind applications although the specification of the exact metrics used is not always clear in the freely available descriptions of the standards. A proposal for an HF radar test site covering the currently proposed Celtic Sea floating offshore wind sites is made.