The Baltic Sea: 5 sites in the Gulf of Finland, 8 sites in the Gulf of Bothnia and 4 sites in the Baltic Proper

Wave direction; Spectral wave data parameters; Wave height and period statistics; Skin temperature of the water column

Wave recorders

FIMR Wave studies started to measure waves in 1972 in order to get information about the wave climate around Finnish coasts and to study the special characters of wave growth in the northern Baltic Sea. The data has also been used for comparison with the wave model WAM. Measurements have also been made for harbour planning and wave information service. The data set consists of measurements made with Waveriders and from 1990 also with Directional Waveriders. Before year 1990 the data set consists of significant wave heights, peak wave periods, spectra and vertical sea level displacements measured every 3 hour. From year 1990 the measurements have been made once in an hour and most of the data includes also the wave direction, directional spread, sea surface temperature and sea surface displacement in three directions. The length of the measuring season per year has been varying from few days to 12 months depending on the time of deploying the buoy and the ice coverage of the year. Most of the measurements have been made during autumn. Usually one buoy has been deployed per year, in some years four. At the moment the number of measurements in the data set is about 73 000. In the Baltic Proper the measurements have been made in co-operation with Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (1982-86) and with Meteorological Institute of Uppsala University (1995-96). The measurements off Helsinki since 2000 are a joint project of the Gulf of Finland Maritime District, Helsinki Port and Finnish Institute of Marine Research.

Finnish Meteorological Institute
Erik Palmenin aukio P.O. Box 503
Helsinki

FI-00101
Finland