Wind Direction Retrieval from X-Band Marine Radar Images Using 2D-DTCWT–CSC and Maximum-Energy Radial Rings

Under moderate-to-high wind conditions, low-frequency wind direction modulation signals in X-band marine radar images are strongly coupled with wave textures, sea clutter, and blind-zone interference, which degrades wind direction retrieval accuracy. To address this problem, this study proposes a wind direction retrieval method based on two-dimensional dual-tree complex wavelet transform (2D-DTCWT), convolutional sparse coding (CSC), and maximum-energy radial rings. First, 2D-DTCWT is used to suppress wave textures and local noise in the wavelet domain while enhancing low-frequency wind direction modulation signals. Then, K–singular value decomposition (K-SVD) learns the energy distribution characteristics of wind signals, and CSC obtains the spatial response distribution of wind energy in radar images. Finally, the maximum-energy radial ring is adaptively identified, and azimuthal energy statistics within this ring are fitted using a cosine-squared function. The proposed method was evaluated using X-band marine radar data collected during sea trials in the coastal waters of Zhejiang, China. On the 900-sample main validation dataset, the proposed method achieved the highest correlation coefficient (CC) of 0.85 and an overall root mean square error (RMSE) of 4.24°, reducing the RMSE by 43.0% and 66.7% compared with conventional single-curve fitting and extended-bow-heading DWT, respectively. The results demonstrate improved robustness under both upwind and downwind blind-zone conditions.