Combined height/slope/curvature measurements of short ocean wind waves

A new optical instrument has been designed for combined measurements of height, slope and curvature of the small-scale waves at the ocean surface. The compact and rugged sensor head contains two light sources and a short-base CCD stereo camera setup. It acquires stereo images of the specular reflections on the water surface representing slope of zero in a sector of about 40x30cm2. The instrument determines the mean height of the reflections in the footprint, the probability for slope of zero, and the mean square curvature. Continuous time series with 30 frames per second were recorded. Experiments from the Scripps pier and the research platform Noordwijk are reported.