Abstract
High Frequency radar (HFR) is a land-based remote sensing instrument offering a unique insight to coastal ocean variability, by providing synoptic, high frequency and high resolution data at the ocean atmosphere interface. HFRs have become invaluable tools in the field of operational oceanography for measuring surface currents, waves and winds, with direct applications in different sectors and an unprecedented potential for the integrated management of the coastal zone. In Europe, the number of HFR networks has been showing a significant growth over the past ten years, with over 50 HFRs currently deployed and a number in the planning stage. There is also a growing literature concerning the use of this technology in research and operational oceanography. A big effort is made in Europe towards a coordinated development of coastal HFR technology and its products within the framework of different European and international initiatives. One recent initiative has been to make an up-to-date inventory of the existing HFR operational systems in Europe, describing the characteristics of the systems, their operational products and applications. This paper offers a comprehensive review on the present status of European HFR network, and discusses the next steps towards the integration of HFR platforms as operational components of the European Ocean Observing System, designed to align and integrate Europe’s ocean observing capacity for a truly integrated end-to-end observing system for the European coasts.
Highlights
The accurate monitoring of ocean surface transport, which is inherently chaotic and depends on the details of the surface current field at several scales, is key for the effective integrated management of the coastal zone
A growing number of European studies have been developed on the use of High Frequency Radar (HFR) data toward a better understanding of the surface ocean coastal dynamics (Shrira et al, 2001; Rubio et al, 2011; Schaeffer et al, 2011; Uttieri et al, 2011; Sentchev et al, 2013; Berta et al, 2014a; Shrira and Forget, 2015; Stanev et al, 2015; Falco et al, 2016)
Within the framework offered by these initiatives and the opportunity set by two ongoing research projects with a strong HFR component, a survey has recently been launched, collecting information on more than 50 operational HFR installations
Summary
The accurate monitoring of ocean surface transport, which is inherently chaotic and depends on the details of the surface current field at several scales, is key for the effective integrated management of the coastal zone. Among the different measuring systems, High Frequency Radar (HFR) technology offers a unique insight to coastal ocean variability, by providing high resolution data at the interface between ocean and atmosphere. Recent reviews on this technology and its applications worldwide have been provided by several authors (Gurgel et al, 1999; Fujii et al, 2013; Paduan and Washburn, 2013; Wyatt, 2014). Within the framework offered by these initiatives and the opportunity set by two ongoing research projects with a strong HFR component, a survey has recently been launched, collecting information on more than 50 operational HFR installations The outputs of this survey offer a first-time diagnostic of the current development of this technology in Europe and its applications. The potential of HFRs to allow an unprecedented step forward in the understanding of ocean processes and transport mechanisms along the European coasts and to provide invaluable products for the development of the European coastal operational oceanography, can only be fully exploited under strong European cooperation, in coherence with the existing initiatives at European and international levels
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