PacIOOS has publicly accessible data on wave heights, wave periods, wave direction derived from buoys located around the Hawaiian Islands. During the biggest northerly swells, Waimea Bay experiences some of the biggest waves in the world. The Eddie Aikau contest is held when the swells reach 40+ ft.

I downloaded data on wave height, wave period, and wave direction during the month of January. Using R studio, I was able to plot a time series line graph of the wave height for January 25, 2020.

First, I downloaded the wave buoy data and imported it into R studio:

library(readr)
Waimea_ <- read_csv("Waimea_.csv")
View(Waimea_)

Then, I installed the knitr package and used the “kable” function to nicely display the wave buoy data in a table:

library(knitr)
kable(Waimea_, format="markdown", digits=2)
Date Time Wave_Height Direction Period Mean Period
1/25/2020 00:09:00 6.46 323 12.50 9.13
1/25/2020 00:39:00 6.40 320 12.50 9.25
1/25/2020 01:09:00 6.14 320 11.76 9.13
1/25/2020 01:39:00 6.73 325 11.76 9.02
1/25/2020 02:09:00 6.69 317 11.76 8.83
1/25/2020 02:39:00 7.22 318 11.76 8.88
1/25/2020 03:09:00 7.94 316 12.50 9.35
1/25/2020 03:39:00 7.41 316 11.76 8.76
1/25/2020 04:09:00 7.94 306 20.00 9.55
1/25/2020 04:39:00 7.91 310 12.50 8.90
1/25/2020 05:09:00 8.50 304 18.18 10.02
1/25/2020 05:39:00 8.83 313 20.00 10.68
1/25/2020 06:09:00 9.25 310 20.00 10.94
1/25/2020 06:39:00 10.47 306 18.18 11.67
1/25/2020 07:09:00 10.43 306 18.18 11.69
1/25/2020 07:39:00 11.02 310 18.18 12.58
1/25/2020 08:09:00 12.04 320 18.18 12.73
1/25/2020 08:39:00 12.99 318 20.00 13.21
1/25/2020 09:09:00 12.63 317 18.18 13.06
1/25/2020 09:39:00 14.21 314 18.18 13.86
1/25/2020 10:09:00 14.17 311 18.18 14.12
1/25/2020 10:39:00 14.07 313 18.18 13.83
1/25/2020 11:09:00 13.85 316 18.18 13.19
1/25/2020 11:39:00 12.20 316 16.67 12.38
1/25/2020 12:09:00 13.22 317 16.67 12.99
1/25/2020 12:39:00 13.81 314 18.18 13.10
1/25/2020 13:09:00 14.27 304 16.67 12.87
1/25/2020 13:39:00 14.50 307 18.18 13.20
1/25/2020 14:09:00 14.07 304 16.67 12.74
1/25/2020 14:39:00 14.30 302 18.18 13.03
1/25/2020 15:09:00 11.98 306 18.18 11.58
1/25/2020 15:39:00 12.76 302 18.18 12.44
1/25/2020 16:09:00 13.58 304 18.18 12.95
1/25/2020 16:39:00 13.32 307 16.67 12.78
1/25/2020 17:09:00 17.06 311 18.18 13.96
1/25/2020 17:39:00 12.40 307 18.18 12.25
1/25/2020 18:09:00 12.37 300 16.67 12.09
1/25/2020 18:39:00 12.76 310 16.67 12.25
1/25/2020 19:09:00 12.50 309 15.38 11.79
1/25/2020 19:39:00 12.43 306 16.67 11.98
1/25/2020 20:09:00 12.34 311 16.67 11.40
1/25/2020 20:39:00 13.88 317 16.67 12.51
1/25/2020 21:09:00 11.45 317 16.67 11.79
1/25/2020 21:39:00 12.14 318 16.67 12.89
1/25/2020 22:09:00 13.35 316 16.67 13.09
1/25/2020 22:39:00 13.02 317 16.67 12.73
1/25/2020 23:09:00 11.45 313 16.67 12.35
1/25/2020 23:39:00 12.17 321 18.18 12.46

I used this wave buoy data to plot wave height every 30 minutes on January 25, 2020 using the ggplot package:

library(ggplot2)
Time<-Waimea_$Time
P1 <- ggplot(aes(x=Time, y=Wave_Height), data=Waimea_)+ 
  geom_line()  +xlab("Time") + ylab("Wave Height")+
  ggtitle("Wave Height at Waimea Buoy on January 25, 2020") 
P1

I used the Geom_line function to change the color and thickness of the line. I also added the “classic” theme to this plot:

P1 <- ggplot(aes(x=Time, y=Wave_Height), data=Waimea_)+ 
  geom_line(linetype="solid", color="blue", size=2)  +xlab("Time") + ylab("Wave Height")+
  ggtitle("Wave Height at Waimea Buoy on January 25, 2020") 

P1+ theme_classic()

This plot allows us to see what time the peak wave height was at Waimea on January 25, 2020. As you can see, wave height at Waimea was greatest at around 6:00 PM.

RMarkdown is an awesome tool to display plots, analyze data, and give instructions on using R Studio!!!!!!!!!!!!

**Now GO OUT AND CHARGE LIKE EDDIE!