An Opportunity for Long-Distance Oceanographic and Meteorological Monitoring Using Over-the-Horizon Defense Radars

Ocean-monitoring tasks can be added to military over-the-horizon radars at modest incremental cost. A surface-wind-direction analysis for the Caribbean made with a U.S. Navy radar illustrates one capability of such a system. Surface wind speed and ocean wave height are also available as by-products of the radars' surveillance missions if longer coherent-integration times are used to resolve the second-order sea echo.