The History of Oceanographic High Frequency Radar at Rutgers University

Oceanographic High Frequency radars (HFR) have been mapping currents in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Bight since 1998 when two stations were installed in New Jersey at Brant Beach and Brigantine as part of the Rutgers University Long Term Ecosystem Observatory (LEO-15). Twenty-five years later, that seminal duo has grown into the 41-site Mid Atlantic HFR network providing continuous current maps along more than 1,000 km of coastline from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras. The expansive gridded current velocities serve a variety of stakeholders including federal agencies like the U.S. Coast Guard for search and rescue, NOAA for oil spill response, Homeland Security for vessel detection and ocean scientists developing both short-term forecasting applications as well as longer term, multi-decadal changes in coastal circulation. Long-term archives are now available with calculated decadal mean, annual and seasonally averaged surface currents. This paper provides a history of the network to date and a glimpse towards the future.