Observations of waves and sea ice drift using wave-ice buoys

Published: 2026-03-26

The dataset comprises in situ observations of ocean waves in sea ice and associated sea-ice drift. Seven wave-ice buoys (OpenMetBuoy; Rabault et al., 2022, https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences12030110) were deployed on sea-ice floes in the Ross Sea from 29 March to 15 April 2025. The dataset contains 2-hourly wave spectra and corresponding hourly geographic positions (longitude and latitude). The buoys were deployed with support from colleagues of Joint Twilight Ross Sea Ecosystem Studies (JTRES) project and crew of Xuelong II. Data is provided in MATLAB (*.mat) format. The following is provided for each buoy (IB3, IB6, IB13, IB15, IB33, IB34, IB35): time = time stamp of wave spectrum measurements in days since year 0000; E = sea surface wave variance spectral density in meters squared times seconds; f = wave frequency in Hertz; Hs = wave significant height in meters; Tp = wave period at variance spectral density maximum in seconds; modem = Iridium modem number; GPStime = time stamp of GPS coordinates in days since year 0000; lat = latitude in degrees North; lon = longitude in degrees East.