Skip to main content
Ocean Networks Canada

Ocean Networks Canada

Search form

Facebook iconTwitter iconLinkedIn iconYouTube iconFlickr iconInstagram icon

Menu

  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Jobs & Opportunities
    • Events & Workshops
    • Contact Us
    • Support Us
    • Annual Report 2020-2021
    • Organization
      • Leadership
      • Staff
      • Boards
      • Committees
    • Funders, Associate Members & Partners
      • Funders
      • Associate Members
      • Partners
  • Science
    • Science
    • Active Research
    • Highlights
    • Science Plan
      • Summary
      • Science Themes
    • Publications
      • General Interest
      • Academic
    • Getting Involved
      • Proposals
  • Innovation Centre
    • Innovation Centre
    • About the Innovation Centre
    • Success Stories
    • Contact Us
    • Smart Ocean™ Systems
      • Sensors and Instruments
      • Technology Demos
      • Ocean Observing Systems
      • Earthquake Early Warning
    • Partners & Networks
      • Industry Network
      • Global Partnerships
      • R&D Support
      • Students in Industry
    • Atlantic Partners
  • Learning
    • Learning
    • Learning Highlights
    • Learning Events
    • Partnerships
    • Contact Us
    • Ocean Sense
      • Community Observatories
        • Cambridge Bay
        • Campbell River
        • Kitamaat Village
        • Prince Rupert
      • Teacher Info
      • Student Info
      • Resources & Lessons
    • Get Involved
      • For Students
        • For Undergrads & Grads
      • For Educators
        • Educator Opportunities
      • For Communities
      • Ship2Shore
      • Citizen Science
        • Coastbuster
        • Digital Fishers
      • Youth Science Ambassador
    • Resources
      • Learning at Home
      • Educator Resources
      • Ocean Alive!
      • Glossary of Terms
      • Research Ideas
  • Observatories
    • Observatories
    • Arctic
    • Atlantic
    • Pacific
    • Mobile Platforms
    • Infrastructure
      • Data Facilities
      • Platforms
      • Devices & Sensors
      • Cables & Connectors
    • Expeditions
      • Wiring the Abyss
      • Expedition Logs
      • Maintenance Processes
    • Notices
      • Information for Mariners
      • Alerts and System Status
  • Data & Tools
    • Data & Tools
    • Highlights
    • Data Quality
    • Preview & Download
      • Preview & Visualize
      • Data Download Tools
      • State of the Ocean Plots
      • Ocean Report Card
    • Apps & Services
      • Mobile Apps
      • OPeNDAP Web Services
      • Related Sources
      • Earthquake Data Dashboard
    • Data Help
      • Data Policy
      • Tutorials & Help Pages
      • Request Help
  • Sights & Sounds
    • Sights & Sounds
    • Terms of Use
    • Video
      • Live Video
      • Video Highlights
      • Video Archives
    • Images
      • Maps
    • Audio
      • Audio Highlights
      • Audio Archive
  • News
    • News
    • Stories
    • Newsletters
    • Calendar
    • Media Relations
      • Backgrounders
      • Downloads
      • In the News
      • News Releases
      • Media Contacts

About Us

You are here

  1. Home
Mar 16, 2012

Storm Watching

19-23 January 2012:

 An intense windstorm left thousands of Vancouver Islanders out of power and forced BC Ferries to suspend service to the mainland on the 22nd. Wind gusts exceeding 110km/h were recorded in places, as a train of intense low pressure systems struck Vancouver Island's west coast one after another. Wave buoy data at the La Perouse Bank (located approximately 50km northwest of Folger Node, ISDM ID online data: C46206) showed extreme waves reaching as high as 18m on 22-23 January.

 

Derived wave height data from the storm event on 23 January 2012. Over the course of the day, winds weakened from 100 to 35km/h while the peak direction backed from 260o to 170oN. The Sea Height trace (dark green) indicates overall height of waves with periods shorter than 9 seconds. Swell Height (blue) indicates the overall height of fully developed waves with periods longer than 8 seconds. The red arrow marks a time when the tallest wave exceeded 10m.

Watching from Below

Our Folger Passage node is connected to two different instrument platforms, Folger Pinnacle (25m) and Folger Deep (100m). Scientists use data from these platforms to study a variety of topics, including ocean biogeochemistry, land-ocean interactions, phyto- and zooplankton, fish and marine mammals. A recent pilot study by Ocean Networks Canada data specialist Dilumie Abeysirigunawardena found that these platforms might additionally be well-suited to study storm waves and storm impacts on ocean biology.

Deep Mixing

Data from Folger Deep revealed some interesting trends. At storm onset, oxygen concentrations increased significantly, probably due to mixing from wave action, and then levelled out. Water temperature also increased during the early stages of the storm. Salinity, on the other hand, dropped throughout the event.

When Folger Pinnacle data were examined, patterns were different than those observed at Folger Deep. Folger Pinnacle water temperatures dropped sharply at the onset of the storm. Apparently, storm waves were mixing warmer surface water downward and cool water upward from deeper layers into shallow layers. Surface cooling may have also been affected by rain water temperatures, although rain data remain to be examined.

 

Wind & Wave Data

An Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) on Folger Pinnacle platform has special wave measurement capabilities for assessing directional wind and swell waves. Although the pressure sensor of this ADCP was partially damaged, it is still able to collect data which can be corrected using other fully functional pressure sensors at this site. Having multiple sensors at one location is very advantageous, as it allows us to validate the accuracy of collected data. Secondary sensors can also be used as backup in the event a primary sensor fails at a location.

At the storm's peak on 23 January, the ADCP data from Folger Pinnacle indicated significant wave heights, reaching over 10m, with larger directional distributions of wave energy. The drop in the wind speeds from 110 to 35 km/h that day caused the wave energy to diminish substantially toward the end of the day.

Date (2012)  Wind Speed (km/h)  Wind Direction (oN)
19 January 35 100-50
20 January 71 100-275
21 January  75  270
22 January 100 100-270
23 January 110-35 160-170

The following set of plots from the Folger Pinnacle ADCP gives a detailed illustration of wave energy evolution over the day. Plot A shows the evolution of wave parameters on 23 January 2012. Early in the day, the waves were quite large and gradually diminished as the wind subsided. The thick black line marks peak wave heights from the day. Plot B shows wave energy distribution at the time marked by the thick black line in plot A. Plot C shows wave energy directions. Waves were propagating from almost all directions, but strongest energy was concentrated in the north to west quadrants. Plot D shows wave energy distribution over time. High frequencies indicate large sea waves; low frequencies indicate swell waves.

Zooplankton Distributions

Another interesting feature of the ADCP is its beam intensity data, which shows how objects like bubbles, zooplankton and fish move through the water column. Zooplankton, tiny organisms that feed on phytoplankton, typically migrate up to surface waters to feed at night when there is less of a chance of being eaten by visual predators; at dawn they descend into the depths for protection. These movements can be tracked on both our ADCP and our Biosonics echosounder at Folger. Surprisingly, these regular zooplankton migrations were apparently disrupted by the storm.

On 19 January the normal zooplankton migration occurred, but as winds strengthened on 20 January, their pattern was disrupted significantly and remained so for the rest of the storm. Even following the storm it took nearly 10 days for the zooplankton's regular migration schedule to resume. We speculate that perhaps zooplankton are not strong enough swimmers to ascend against such intense waves. Another explanation is that their food (phytoplankton) was more widely dispersed than normal. A third possible explanation is that bubbles injected into the water by the storm action masked the zooplankton signals. During some storm events, waves have been observed to drive air bubbles downward 30-50m into the water column.

Three ADCP plots from Folger Deep (100m) showing the average echo intensity before, during and after the storm event. The time is marked along the top of each plot (PST). The black arrows indicate zooplankton movements on a given day. On 22 January 2012 when the waves were particularly large and strong winds had developed, there was no obvious pattern of zooplankton migration. By 31 January 2012, the regular zooplankton migration pattern was again apparent. (Note that, in these plots, echo intensity was not corrected for spreading and absorption.

Still Much More to Learn

This pilot study by our data specialist illustrates just a couple examples of some new ways scientists can use our seafloor instrumentation to study ocean dynamics and biology. We invite interested scientists to delve deeper, building on these initial observations. Contact us if you would like to know more about our instrumentation and find out how to access our data archives.

Storm | wave height | adcp | data | Research | zooplankton | echosounder | folger passage

Printer-friendly versionPDF version

Related Stories

World-class ocean observing gets a boost
Aug 11, 2021

Haida Nation and ONC partnership expands small vessel traffic monitoring in territorial waters
Jul 21, 2021

Community Fishers: enabling citizen scientists to collect their own ocean data
Jul 20, 2021

Expert Q&A on Canada’s growing blue economy
Feb 9, 2021

Building TRUST to be FAIR: data stewardship for a sustainable ocean economy
Feb 5, 2021

Oceans link to climate change
Jan 8, 2021

Coming soon: MINTED dynamic citation tool
Apr 8, 2020

Calendar of Events

March 2022

  • « Prev  
  •   Next »
S M T W T F S
27
28
1
2
3
4
5
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
27
28
29
30
31
1
2
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Newsletter

Sign up for our monthly e-newsletter:

 

Tweets Follow @Ocean_Networks

 

 

Highlights

  • Audio
  • Data
  • Learning
  • Science
  • Video

Reading Room

  • Active Research
  • Backgrounders
  • FAQs
  • Glossary
  • News Briefs
  • News Stories
  • Newsletters
  • Publications

Cool Stuff

  • Apps
  • Digital Fishers
  • iBooks & e-Pubs
  • Live Video
  • Maps
  • Images
  • State of the Ocean

Data & Tools

  • Apps
  • Data Plots
  • Data Search
  • Data Policy
  • Data Help
  • OPeNDAP Web Services

Opportunities

  • Calendar
  • Educator Opportunities
  • Global Partnerships
  • Industry Network
  • Jobs
  • Staff List
  • Technology Services

Sites & Instruments

  • Arctic Sites
  • Northeast Pacific Sites
  • Salish Sea Sites
  • Notice to Mariners

Follow Us

Facebook iconTwitter iconLinkedIn iconYouTube iconFlickr iconInstagram icon

Sign up for our newsletter

Feedback

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.

                              

About Us | Contact Us | Media Relations | Legal Notices

©   Ocean Networks Canada. All rights reserved.  2474 Arbutus Road, Victoria, BC, V8N 1V8 | 1.250.472.5400