Abstract
Direction-finding (DF) high-frequency radar (HFR) is preferred among the HFR family and is widely used around the world due to its compact structure. The correct determination of first-order peaks (FOPs) from Doppler spectra recorded by radar is a critical step toward attaining accurate mappings of surface currents. The commonly used FOPs determination method is generally sufficient for most situations. However, it needs six user-defined input parameters. These parameters result in complex procedures of optimizing the values of these six user-defined parameters. To simplify the FOPs determination for DF HFR, we propose an alternative method which only needs one user-defined parameter. To validate the reliability of the proposed method, we compare the FOPs determination results derived from the proposed method with those from the commonly used method on a data set covering a period of 256 days. The results indicate that the proposed method yields a similar FOPs determination result to the commonly used method. This proposed input-parameter-reduced method can greatly simplify the use of the HFR for users who are unprofessional in the HFR and promote the popularization and application of HFR.
Highlights
High-frequency radar (HFR), which works at a frequency of 3 to 30 MHz, is widely used to remotely sense oceanic surface state [1,2,3,4]
To validate the performance of the second-order spectra-based (SSB) method, we check the differences of the first-order peaks (FOPs) determination results between the SSB method and the SeaSonde method
The number of the determined FOPs for each range-Doppler spectrum is calculated as the sum of the determined first-order spectral points for the Doppler spectrum collected from the 3rd to 40th range cell
Summary
High-frequency radar (HFR), which works at a frequency of 3 to 30 MHz, is widely used to remotely sense oceanic surface state [1,2,3,4]. To automatically separate the FOPs from a range-dependent Doppler spectrum for DF HFR, the logarithmic difference spectrum method was developed by Lipa and Barrick in 1983 [11]. At present, this logarithmic difference spectrum method is completely replaced by an empirical method. To reduce the complexity of FOPs determination for broad-beam DF HFR, Kirincich [16] proposed an image-processing-based (IPB) FOPs determination method, which needs three userdefined parameters. To assess the performance of this IPB method, Kirincich [16] compared this IPB method with the SeaSonde method by visually inspecting the FOPs determination results and evaluating the accuracy of radar-derived radial velocities. Because in some cases the spectra are very complex, which results in visually determining the true FOPs is questionable even for experts
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