Measurements of ocean wave and current field using dual polarized X-band radar

A new ocean wave and sea surface current monitoring system with horizontally-(HH) and vertically-(VV) polarized X-band radar was developed. Two experiments into the use of the radar system were carried out at two sites, respectively, for calibration process in Zhangzi Island of the Yellow Sea, and for validation in the Yellow Sea and South China Sea. Ocean wave parameters and sea surface current velocities were retrieved from the dual polarized radar image sequences based on an inverse method. The results obtained from dual-polarized radar data sets acquired in Zhangzi Island are compared with those from an ocean directional buoy. The results show that ocean wave parameters and sea surface current velocities retrieved from radar image sets are in a good agreement with those observed by the buoy. In particular, it has been found that the vertically-polarized radar is better than the horizontally-polarized radar in retrieving ocean wave parameters, especially in detecting the significant wave height below 1.0 m.     

A new modulation transfer function for ocean wave spectra retrieval from X-band marine radar imagery

When imaging ocean surface waves by X-band marine radar,the radar backscatter from the sea surface is modulated by the long surface gravity waves. The modulation transfer function(MTF) comprises tilt,hydrodynamic,and shadowing modulations. A conventional linear MTF was derived using HH-polarized radar observations under conditions of deep water. In this study,we propose a new quadratic polynomial MTF based on VV-polarized radar measurements taken from heterogeneous nearshore wave fields. This new MTF is obtained using a radar-observed image spectrum and in situ buoy-measured wave frequency spectrum. We validate the MTF by comparing peak and mean wave periods retrieved from X-band marine radar image sequences with those measured by the buoy. It is shown that the retrieval accuracies of peak and mean wave periods of the new MTF are better than the conventional MTF. The results also show that the bias and root mean square errors of the peak and mean wave periods of the new MTF are 0.05 and 0.88 s,and 0.32 and 0.53 s,respectively,while those of the conventional MTF are 0.61 and 0.98 s,and 1.39 and 1.48 s,respectively. Moreover,it is also shown that the retrieval results are insensitive to the coefficients in the proposed MTF.     

A joint method to retrieve directional ocean wave spectra from SAR and wave spectrometer data

This paper proposes a joint method to simultaneously retrieve wave spectra at dif ferent scales from spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR) and wave spectrometer data. The method combines the output from the two dif ferent sensors to overcome retrieval limitations that occur in some sea states. The wave spectrometer sensitivity coeffi cient is estimated using an ef fective signifi cant wave height(SWH), which is an average of SAR-derived and wave spectrometer-derived SWH. This averaging extends the area of the sea surface sampled by the nadir beam of the wave spectrometer to improve the accuracy of the estimated sensitivity coeffi cient in inhomogeneous sea states. Wave spectra are then retrieved from SAR data using wave spectrometer-derived spectra as fi rst guess spectra to complement the short waves lost in SAR data retrieval. In addition, the problem of 180° ambiguity in retrieved spectra is overcome using SAR imaginary cross spectra. Simulated data were used to validate the joint method. The simulations demonstrated that retrieved wave parameters, including SWH, peak wave length(PWL), and peak wave direction(PWD), agree well with reference parameters. Collocated data from ENVISAT advanced SAR(ASAR), the airborne wave spectrometer STORM, the PHAROS buoy, and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting(ECMWF) were then used to verify the proposed method. Wave parameters retrieved from STORM and two ASAR images were compared to buoy and ECMWF wave data. Most of the retrieved parameters were comparable to reference parameters. The results of this study show that the proposed joint retrieval method could be a valuable complement to traditional methods used to retrieve directional ocean wave spectra, particularly in inhomogeneous sea states.     

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Comparison and error analysis of remotely measured waveheight by high frequency ground wave radar

High frequency ground wave radar (HFGWR) has unique advantage in the survey of dynamical factors, such as sea surface current, sea wave, and sea surface wind in marine conditions in coastal sea area. Compared to marine satellite remote sensing, it involves lower cost, has higher measuring accuracy and spatial resolution and sampling frequency. High frequency ground wave radar is a new land based remote sensing instrument with superior vision and greater application potentials. This paper reviews the development history and application status of high frequency wave radar, introduces its remote-sensing principle and method to inverse offshore fluid, and wave and wind field. Based on the author's "863 Project", this paper recounts comparison and verification of radar remote-sensing value, the physical calibration of radar-measured data and methods to control the quality of radar-sensing data. The authors discuss the precision of radar-sensing data's inversing on offshore fluid field and application of the assimilated data on assimilation.     

The study of single station inverting the sea surface current by HF ground wave radar based on adjoint assimilation technology

This paper introduces the assimilation technology in an ocean dynamics model and discusses the feasibility of inverting the sea surface current in the detection zone by assimilating the sea current radial velocity detected by single station HF ground wave radar in ocean dynamics model. Based on the adjoint assimilation and POM model, the paper successfully inverts the sea surface current through single station HF ground wave radar in the Zhoushan sea area. The single station HF radar inversion results are also compared with the bistatic HF radar composite results and the fixed point measured results by Annderaa current meter. The error analysis shows that acquisition of flow velocity and flow direction data from the single station HF radar based on adjoint assimilation and POM model is viable and the data obtained have a high correlation and consistency with the flow field observed by HF radar.     

A new method for the estimation of oceanic mixed-layer depth using shipboard X-band radar images

Shipboard X-band radar images acquired on 24 June 2009 are used to study nonlinear internal wave characteristics in the northeastern South China Sea. The studied images show three nonlinear internal waves in a packet. A method based on the Radon Transform technique is introduced to calculate internal wave parameters such as the direction of propagation and internal wave velocity from backscatter images. Assuming that the ocean is a two-layer finite depth system, we can derive the mixed-layer depth by applying the internal wave velocity to the mixed-layer depth formula. Results show reasonably good agreement with in-situ thermistor chain and conductivity-temperature-depth data sets.     

Numerical simulation and validation of ocean waves measured by an Along-Track Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar

A new nonlinear integral transform of ocean wave spectra into Along-Track Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar （ATI-SAR） image spectra is described. ATI-SAR phase image spectra are calculated for various sea states and radar configurations based on the nonlinear integral transform. The numerical simulations show that the slant range to velocity ratio （R/V）, significant wave height to ocean wavelength ratio （Hi2）, the baseline （2B） and incident angle （0） affect ATI-SAR imaging. The ATI-SAR imaging theory is validated by means of Two X-band, HH-polarized ATI-SAR phase images of ocean waves and eight C-band, HH-polarized ATI-SAR phase image spectra of ocean waves. It is shown that ATI-SAR phase image spectra are in agreement with those calculated by forward mapping in situ directional wave spectra collected simultaneously with available ATI-SAR observations. ATI-SAR spectral correlation coefficients between observed and simulated are greater than 0.6 and are not sensitive to the degree of nonlinearity. However, the ATI-SARoPhase image spectral turns towards the range direction, even if the real ocean wave direction is 30. It is also shown that the ATI-SAR imaging mechanism is significantly affected by the degree of velocity bunching nonlinearity, especially for high values of R/V and H/2.     

Comparison and analysis of Envisat ASAR ocean wave spectra with buoy data in the northern Pacific Ocean

The validation and assessment of Envisat advanced synthetic aperture radar (ASAR) ocean wave spectra products are important to their application in ocean wave numerical predictions. Six-year ASAR wave spectra data are compared with one-dimensional (1D) wave spectra of 55 co-located moored buoy observations in the northern Pacific Ocean. The ASAR wave spectra data are firstly quality control filtered and spatio-temporal matched with buoy data. The comparisons are then performed in terms of 1D wave spectra, significant wave height (SWH) and mean wave period (MWP) in different spatio-temporal offsets respectively. SWH comparison results show the evident dependence of SWH biases on wind speed and the ASAR SWH saturation effect. The ASAR wave spectra tend to underestimate SWH at high wind speeds and overestimate SWH at low wind speeds. MWP comparison results show that MWP has a systematic bias and therefore it should be bias-modified before used. The comparisons of 1D wave spectra show that both wave spectra agree better at low frequencies than at high frequencies, which indicates the ASAR data cannot resolve the high frequency waves.     

Measurements of sea ice thickness and its subice morphology analysis using ice-penetration radar in the Arctic Ocean

1　IntroductionSeaice ,asanimportantcomponentoftheArcticclimatesystem ,hasdrawnsignifi cantscientificinterest.Seaicethicknessanditsmorphologyhavedramaticimpactsono cean atmosphere iceinteractions(Wadhams 1 994;Barryetal.1 993 ;Dickson 1 999;PadhamsandNorman 2 0 0 0 ) ,whichdirectlyaffecttheexchangeprocessandspeedofheatandmassbetweentheoceanandtheatmosphere ,dominatethephysicalmechanicsfea turesofseaice ,andaffecttheseaicemovement&deformationaswellasicefreezing&meltingprocess(Hollandetal.1 99…     

Wave extraction with portable high-frequency surface wave radar OSMAR-S

High frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR) has now gained more and more attention in real-time monitoring of sea surface states such as current, waves and wind. Normally a small-aperture antenna array is preferred to a large-aperture one due to the easiness and low cost to set up. However, the large beam-width and the corresponding incorrect division of the first- and second-order Doppler spectral regions often lead to big errors in wave height and period estimations. Therefore, for the HFSWR with a compact cross-loop/monopole antenna (CMA), a new algorithm involving improved beam-forming (BF) and spectral division techniques is proposed. On one hand, the cross-spectrum of the output sequence by the conventional beam-forming (CBF) with all the three elements and the output with only the two loops is used in place of the CMA output self-spectrum to achieve a decreased beam-width; on the other hand, the better null seeking process is included to improve the division accuracy of the first- and second-order regions. The algorithm is used to reprocess the data collected by the portable HFSWR OSMAR-S during the Sailing Competition of the 16th Asian Games held in Shanwei in November 2010, and the improvements of both the correlation coefficients and root-mean-square (RMS) errors between the wave height and period estimations and in situ buoy measurements are obvious. The algorithm has greatly enhanced the capabilities of OSMAR-S in wave measurements.     

Trends in significant wave height and surface wind speed in the China Seas between 1988 and 2011

Wind and waves are key components of the climate system as they drive air-sea interactions and influence weather systems and atmospheric circulation. In marine environments, understanding surface wind and wave fields and their evolution over time is important for conducting safe and efficient human activities, such as navigation and engineering. This study considers long-term trends in the sea surface wind speed(WS) and significant wave height(SWH) in the China Seas over the period 1988–2011 using the Cross-Calibrated Multi-Platform(CCMP) ocean surface wind product and a 24-year hindcast wave dataset obtained from the WAVEWATCH-III(WW3) wave model forced with CCMP winds. The long-term trends in WS and SWH in the China Seas are analyzed over the past 24 years to provide a reference point from which to assess future climate change and offshore wind and wave energy resource development in the region. Results demonstrate that over the period 1988–2011 in the China Seas: 1) WS and SWH showed a significant increasing trend of 3.38 cm s~(-1)yr~(-1) and 1.52 cm yr~(-1), respectively; 2) there were notable regional differences in the long-term trends of WS and SWH; 3) areas with strong increasing trends were located mainly in the middle of the Tsushima Strait, the northern and southern areas of the Taiwan Strait, and in nearshore regions of the northern South China Sea; and 4) the long-term trend in WS was closely associated with El Ni?o and a significant increase in the occurrence of gale force winds in the region.     

Retrieval of Significant Wave Height Under Typhoon Conditions from Gaofen-3 SAR Imagery

The objective of this paper is to propose an empirical method to inverse significant wave height(SWH)under typhoon conditions from collected dual-polarization Gaofen(GF)-3 synthetic aperture radar(SAR)imagery.The typhoon scenes were cap-tured from narrow scan(NSC)and wide scan(WSC)images,and collocated with European Center for Medium-Range Weather Fore-casts reanalysis data of(ECMWF).To improve the quality of GF-3 SAR images,the recalibration over rainforest and de-scalloping were carried out.To establish the empirical relationship between SAR-derived parameters and collocated SWH,the sensitivity analysis of typical parameters about the normalized radar cross section(Nrcs)and imagery variance(Cvar)were performed to both VV and VH polarized images.Four scenes from GF-3 SAR imagery under typhoon conditions were used for training the model by the multivari-ate least square regression,and one scene was used for preliminary validation.It was found that the joint retrieval model based on VV and VH polarized SAR imagery performed better than any single polarized model.These results,verified by using ECMWF data,revealed the soundness of this approach,with a correlation of 0.95,bias of 0 m,RMSE of 0.44 and SI of 0.01 when VV polarization and VH polarization data were both used.     

Analysis of Dynamic Characteristics of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road

The 21st century Maritime Silk Road(MSR) proposed by China strongly promotes the maritime industry. In this paper, we use wind and ocean wave datasets from 1979 to 2014 to analyze the spatial and temporal distributions of the wind speed, significant wave height(SWH), mean wave direction(MWD), and mean wave period(MWP) in the MSR. The analysis results indicate that the Luzon Strait and Gulf of Aden have the most obvious seasonal variations and that the central Indian Ocean is relatively stable. We analyzed the distributions of the maximum wind speed and SWH in the MSR over this 36-year period. The results show that the distribution of the monthly average frequency for SWH exceeds 4 m(huge waves) and that of the corresponding wind speed exceeds 13.9 ms~(-1)(high wind speed). The occurrence frequencies of huge waves and high winds in regions east of the Gulf of Aden are as high as 56% and 80%, respectively. We also assessed the wave and wind energies in different seasons. Based on our analyses, we propose a risk factor(RF) for determining navigation safety levels, based on the wind speed and SWH. We determine the spatial and temporal RF distributions for different seasons and analyze the corresponding impact on four major sea routes. Finally, we determine the spatial distribution of tropical cyclones from 2000 to 2015 and analyze the corresponding impact on the four sea routes. The analysis of the dynamic characteristics of the MSR provides references for ship navigation as well as ocean engineering.     

Extraction of internal wave amplitude from nautical X-Band radar observations

One of the most important parameters for oceanic internal waves (IWs) is their amplitude. We have developed a method to retrieve the IW amplitude from nautical X-Band radar images based on the KdV equation for continuous stratified finite depth system. We have also tested the method of measuring the amplitude of IWs from X-Band radar backscatter image sequences acquired on June 2009 in the northeastern South China Sea. The method was applied in several radar images. Experiments show that the retrieval amplitudes are consistent with the in-situ observational amplitudes of IWs by using the towed thermistor chain and conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) profile. The uncertainty of the method is also discussed.     

Correlation analysis of X-band sea clutter in complex domain

The correlation analysis of sea clutter data in a complex domain is conducted in this study. Specific to X-band sea clutter, the statistical characteristics of the complex correlation, particularly the phase characteristics which are closely related to the phase difference of the sea clutter and the Doppler properties, are analyzed in detail based on the experimental data, recorded by the Mc Master University IPIX radar in 1993. That the phase term of the complex correlation presents linear change means that there exists the linearity of phase differences between different time intervals in the X-band sea clutter. This investigation explores the regularities about the effect of wind on the complex correlation with similar patterns for different polarization modes. The regularities indicate that the wind direction can be inferred from the distribution pattern of the complex correlation. Moreover, a model describing the relationships between the statistics of the complex correlation and wind parameters is proposed. The application for target detection based on the differences of characteristics of complex correlations between the sea clutter and the target are also investigated and the proposed features have been confirmed. The principle of the method is fundamental for broader future applications.     

Dynamic responses of top tensioned riser under combined excitation of internal solitary wave, surface wave and vessel motion

An investigation on the dynamic response of a top tensioned riser (TTR) under combined excitation of internal solitary wave, surface wave and vessel motion is presented in this paper. The riser is idealized as a tensioned slender beam with dynamic boundary conditions. The KdV-mKdV equation is chosen to simulate the internal solitary wave, and the vessel motion is analysed by using the method proposed by Sexton. Using finite element method, the governing equation is solved in time domain with Newmark-β method. The computation programs for solving the differential equations in time domain are compiled and numerical results are obtained, including dimensionless displacement and stress. The action of internal solitary wave on the riser is like a slow powerful impact, and is much larger than those of surface wave and vessel motion. When the riser is under combined excitation, it vibrates at frequencies of both surface wave and vessel motion, and the vibration is dominated by internal solitary wave. As the internal solitary wave crest passes by the centre of the riser, the maximum displacement and stress along the riser occur. Compared to the lower part, the displacement and stress of the riser in the upper part are much larger.     

LABORATORY MEASUREMENTS OF THE EFFECTS OF VISCOSITY ON SHORT WATER WAVE SPECTRA AND IMPLICATION FOR RADAR REMOTE SENSING OF THE OCEAN SURFACE

Using an X-band radar and a mechanical short wave generator, we measured the dependenceof radar return power on the viscosity of water which was adjusted by changing the watertemperature. From the measurements we drew two inferences: (1) the spectral density of short waterwaves, F, depends strongly on the viscosity of waterF(v)=F_0~mwhere is normalized viscosity, and m=-1.72; and (2) the normalized radar cross section, σ_0(dB), dependsstrongly on the water temperature△σ_0 (dB)=O.217△TAnalyses indicate that these dependencies can be observed in the field only at low wind conditionsat which the Bragg scattering is a dominant mechanism for producing the radar return signals. Theresults of this study can be used to interpret the sharp variability in radar cross section across a watertemperature front and SAR images of oeeanic phenomena.     

A background error covariance model of significant wave height employing Monte Carlo simulation

The quality of background error statistics is one of the key components for successful assimilation of observations in a numerical model.The background error covariance(BEC) of ocean waves is generally estimated under an assumption that it is stationary over a period of time and uniform over a domain.However,error statistics are in fact functions of the physical processes governing the meteorological situation and vary with the wave condition.In this paper,we simulated the BEC of the significant wave height(SWH) employing Monte Carlo methods.An interesting result is that the BEC varies consistently with the mean wave direction(MWD).In the model domain,the BEC of the SWH decreases significantly when the MWD changes abruptly.A new BEC model of the SWH based on the correlation between the BEC and MWD was then developed.A case study of regional data assimilation was performed,where the SWH observations of buoy 22001 were used to assess the SWH hindcast.The results show that the new BEC model benefits wave prediction and allows reasonable approximations of anisotropy and inhomogeneous errors.     

Wave steepness retrieved from scatterometer data in a genetic algorithm

Wave steepness is an important characteristic of a high sea state, and is widely applied on wave propagations at ports, ships, offshore platforms, and CO2 circulation in the ocean. Obtaining wave steepness is a difficult task that depends heavily on theoretical research on wavelength distribution and direct observations. Development of remote-sensing techniques provides new opportunities to study wave steepness. At present, two formulas are proposed to estimate wave steepness from QuikSCAT and ERS-1/2 scatterometer data. We found that wave steepness retrieving is not affected by radar band, and polarization method, and that relationship of wave steepness with radar backscattering cross section is similar to that with wind. Therefore, we adopted and modified a genetic algorithm for relating wave steepness with radar backscattering cross section. Results show that the root-mean-square error of the wave steepness retrieved is 0.005 in two cases from ERS-1/2 scatterometer data and from QuikSCAT scatterometer data.