Estimation of the Wind Field with a Single High-Frequency Radar

Over several decades, high-frequency (HF) radars have been employed for remotely measuring various ocean surface parameters, encompassing surface currents, waves, and winds. Wind direction and speed are usually estimated from both first-order and second-order Bragg-resonant scatter from two or more HF radars monitoring the same area of the ocean surface. This limits the observational domain to the common area where second-order scatter is available from at least two radars. Here, we propose to estimate wind direction and speed from the first-order scatter of a single HF radar, yielding the same spatial coverage as for surface radial currents. Wind direction is estimated using the ratio of the positive and negative first-order Bragg peaks intensity, with a new simple algorithm to remove the left/right directional ambiguity from a single HF radar. Wind speed is estimated from wind direction and de-tided surface radial currents using an artificial neural network which has been trained with in situ wind speed observations. Radar-derived wind estimations are compared with in situ observations in the Lower Saint-Lawrence Estuary (Quebec, Canada). The correlation coefficients between radar-estimated and in situ wind directions range from 0.84 to 0.95 for Wellen Radars (WERAs) and from 0.79 to 0.97 for Coastal Ocean Dynamics Applications Radars (CODARs), while the root mean square differences range from 8° to 12° for WERAs and from 10° to 19° for CODARs. Correlation coefficients between the radar-estimated and the in situ wind speeds range from 0.89 to 0.93 for WERAs and from 0.81 to 0.93 for CODARs, while the root mean square differences range from 1.3 m.s−1 to 2.3 m.s−1 for WERAs and from 1.6 m.s−1 to 3.9 m.s−1 for CODARs.