In situ measurement station for monitoring wind and water properties in extreme hydrodynamic conditions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12292545-B2
Application number	US-202117327148-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 21, 2021
Priority date	Nov 13, 2020
Publication date	May 6, 2025
Grant date	May 6, 2025

Abstract

The present disclosure describes various embodiments of systems, apparatuses, and methods of monitoring wind and water properties. For one such weather monitoring system, a weather monitoring station comprises an upper mast section having an instrumentation package, wherein the instrumentation package includes an orientation sensor, communications circuitry, a wind velocity sensor, and a control unit that is configured to at least receive sensor data and transmit communication data via the communications circuitry. The weather monitoring station further includes at least one lower mast section that is coupled to the upper mast section, and an anchoring system that is coupled to the lower mast section, wherein the anchoring system includes at least one subsurface anchor for inserting into a ground surface within a littoral zone of a coastal area. Other systems, apparatuses, and methods are also provided.

First claim

Therefore, at least the following is claimed:

1. A weather monitoring system comprising:
at least one weather monitoring station, wherein the weather monitoring station comprises:
an upper mast section having at least one elongated post equipped with an instrumentation package, wherein the instrumentation package at the upper mast section includes an orientation sensor to detect an orientation of the upper mast section relative to the earth surface's coordinate system, communications circuitry that is configured to establish a communications network with a network base station, at least a wind velocity sensor, and a control unit that is configured to at least receive sensor data and transmit communication data via the communications circuitry;
at least one lower mast section including at least one elongated post equipped with a lower instrumentation package that is coupled to the upper mast section, wherein the lower instrumentation package includes at least a water depth sensor and a wave direction sensor; and
a helical anchoring system that is coupled to the lower mast section, wherein the helical anchoring system includes at least one subsurface helical anchor for inserting into a ground surface within a littoral zone of a coastal area.

2. The weather monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one lower mast section is coupled to the upper mast section at a junction of a rotational shock absorber that allows the upper mast section to deflect in response to wind or water forces.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the upper mast section is approximately 10 meters tall.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the orientation sensor is configured to measure an amount of deflection of the upper mast section and the control unit is configured to reorient a reference frame of the upper mast to the earth surface's coordinate system.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instrumentation package at the upper mast section is positioned at a height of 10 meters above the ground surface, wherein the control unit is configured to estimate an equivalent wind velocity at the height of 10 meters by applying a wind velocity conversion to wind velocity measurements obtained by the wind velocity sensor that accounts for a change in height of the upper mast section caused by a deflection of the upper mast section.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instrumentation package at the upper mast section further includes a sensor configured to measure wind direction.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instrumentation package at the upper mast section further includes a video camera that is configured to record a video feed that is communicated to the network base station.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the video feed is augmented with sensor information obtained from at least the instrumentation package of the upper mast section.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the sensor information comprises at least wind velocity and wind pressure data.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein a structure of the upper mast section is composed of three rods in a triangular orientation, the system further comprising truss chords at diagonal placement between pairs of the three rods.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one subsurface helical anchor comprises four helical anchoring piles that are configured to be assembled during installation, wherein an assembled anchoring system is capable of transferring internal axial, shear, bending moment, and torsion forces across connections of the assembled anchoring system.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instrumentation package at the upper mast section further includes a barometric pressure sensor, and an air temperature sensor.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the lower instrumentation package at the at least one lower mast section includes a water temperature and a salinity sensor.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the lower instrumentation package at the at least one lower mast section further includes an erosion sensor.

15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one weather monitoring station comprises an array of multiple weather monitoring stations, wherein the array of multiple weather monitoring stations is installed on an open shoreline in a pattern that is configured to observe a single extreme wind event.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein each of the multiple weather monitoring stations is configured to connect with the communication network.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein each of the multiple weather monitoring stations is further configured to provide public wireless access to the communication network.

18. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control unit is configured to transmit the sensor data to a remote computing system over the communication network.

19. A method for monitoring an extreme wind event comprising:
mounting one or multiple weather monitoring stations in an array on an open shoreline within a littoral zone of a coastal area in a pattern that is configured to observe a single extreme wind event, wherein an individual weather monitoring station comprises:
an upper mast section having at least one elongated post equipped with an instrumentation package, wherein the instrumentation package at the upper mast section includes an orientation sensor to detect an orientation of the upper mast section relative to the earth surface's coordinate system, communications circuitry that is configured to establish a communications network with a network base station; at least a wind velocity sensor, and a control unit that is configured to at least receive sensor data and transmit communication data via the communications circuitry;
at least one lower mast section including at least one elongated post equipped with a lower instrumentation package that is coupled to the upper mast section, wherein the lower instrumentation package includes at least a water depth sensor and a wave direction sensor; and
an anchoring system that is coupled to the lower mast section, wherein the anchoring system includes at least two helical or screw piles for inserting into a ground surface within a littoral zone of a coastal area;

measuring, by the control unit of the individual weather monitoring station, an amount of deflection of the upper mast section of the individual weather monitoring station and reorienting a reference frame of the upper mast to the earth surface's coordinate system; and
estimating, by the control unit of the individual weather monitoring station, an equivalent wind velocity by applying a wind velocity conversion to wind velocity measurements obtained by the wind velocity sensor that accounts for a change in height of the upper mast section caused by a deflection of the upper mast section.

Assignees

• Univ Florida
• Univ Clarkson
• Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst

Inventors

• Masters Forrest J
• Fernandez-Caban Pedro L
• Phillips Brian M
• Ferraro Christopher C
• Raubenheimer Britt
• Lu Wei-Ting
• Esposito Joseph Alex

Classifications

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• G06N5/04

  Inference or reasoning models · CPC title

• G01W1/10

  Devices for predicting weather conditions (computers per se G06; display devices G09) · CPC title

• G06N20/00

  Machine learning · CPC title

• H04Q9/00 Primary

  Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom · CPC title