Wave-Height Map Extraction From Compact HF Surface-Wave Radar Network

The ocean-wave-height-measurement accuracy and coverage of high-frequency (HF) radars are affected by the echo intensity. Due to the effects of propagation attenuation and the wind-direction spreading function, the same sea area will generate different echo intensities for radars at different locations. Based on this characteristic, a new wave-height-measurement method combining multiple HF radars is proposed in this letter. First, the advantages of the radar network in enhancing the coverage and antiinterference performance of wave-height measurement are analyzed quantitatively. Furthermore, it is found that the signal-to-noise ratio of the second-order echo can be used as weights to fuse the wave heights measured by different radars. A field experiment over 23 days shows that the proposed fusion algorithm effectively improves the radar coverage and the wave-height-measurement accuracy.