Wave Boundary Layer Processes Over an Irregular Bottom

A series of field observations are being carried out to address the objectives outlined above. Measurements of the wave and current field over a broad region of a coral reef are used to determine energy dissipation in an integral sense. Near-bed observations at smaller scales using acoustic profilers deployed on the Rough Boundary Profiler (RBP) then characterize the spatial structure of the boundary flow over a wave orbital excursion. The RBP moves an instrument package along a horizontal track over a distance of up to 3 meters (see figure 1), collecting data over a set time period at each location (typically 0.5 – 2 hours) thus allowing a spatial view of the near-bed flow. The 3 m track can be oriented in the swell direction within a window of +/10 degrees.