Is your wavebuoy really calibrated?

Although the majority of wave height information available has probably been obtained from wave height measuring buoys (wavebuoys) surprisingly little is known about their response, accuracy and limitations in real seas. In this paper we attempt to highlight aspects of buoy and mooring design and calibration techniques where we feel there is insufficient knowledge available to enable the total transfer functions for translating wavebuoy measurements into accurate data to be obtained. Unfortunately, we can offer no solutions at present, but hope to make users more aware of some of the problems.