HF radar technology offers a unique insight to coastal ocean variability by providing high resolution data at the interface between ocean and atmosphere. HFR data are a powerful tool for understanding the coupled ocean-atmosphere system and the different coastal circulation processes like ocean waves, mixing and heat fluxes, wind induced currents and inertial oscillations.
Moreover, since HFR data provide measurements of currents with a relatively wide spatial coverage and high spatio-temporal resolution in near real time, they have become invaluable tools in the field of operational oceanography. HFR systems are now an integrating technology of many coastal observatories with proved potential for monitoring and even providing short-term prediction of coastal currents and inputs for the validation and calibration of numerical ocean forecasting models, especially near the coast.
Oceanorde 4
The shore-based Oceanorde 4 provides reliable data of ocean surface currents and significant wave height and direction over long distances (100-300 km) with outstanding spatial and temporal resolution for SAR and environmental protection images. This robust shore-based system delivers reliable data even under extreme weather and very dynamic ocean current conditions.
The surface current image depicted in figure 1 was taken by Oceanorde 4 which models the current velocity and sea surface salinity.
