About Expanding Marine Radar Possibilities

Abstract

The advantages and limitations of methods and tools for monitoring the main parameters of the sea surface by HF radars are discussed. Methods and technical tools used in the HF range and for monitoring natural environments, including both the marine environment and the ionosphere, are compared. Their main parameters and significant differences of methods, instruments and mathematical data processing are noted. The main characteristics of the WERA and CODAR marine HF radars are given. The results of a two-point trial experiment in the vicinity of Gelendzhik were used to substantiate the methodology and instrumental solutions in order to create a domestic complex of observations in the water area of Novorossiysk. Based on the experiments carried out with both foreign and domestic radars, methods of increasing the efficiency of such radars due to their operation in the entire sounding frequency range are considered. Tests of the prototype of the multi-frequency locator confirmed the possibility of its functioning both in autonomous operation and as part of a geophysical complex, while solving a wide range of problems. In contrast to radars of the WERA and CODAR types, operating at one of the given sounding frequency, measurements can be carried out in a wide frequency range, which makes it possible to construct the fields of current velocities and sea surface waves in an extended range of distances at an appropriate resolution and determine the vertical profile of flows.