Mini Tsunami Detected Using Wave Radar

On 29 May 2017, a “mini tsunami” hit the Dutch coast with a flood wave of more than 2m high which swept away beach chairs, boats and parasols. Thanks to the fact that this wave reached the beaches very early in the morning at about 5:30am local time, nobody was seriously injured. About 50km south-west of Zandvoort there are two WERA ocean radar systems installed at Monster and Ouddorp. These systems are owned by Rijkswaterstaat (a part of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment) and measure the ocean currents around the entrance of the Port of Rotterdam. The operational frequency... (read more)

2017-07-17 09:50:38

Northrop Grumman Radar for US Submarines

Northrop Grumman Corporation has been awarded a contract by the Naval Sea Systems Command to supply navigation radar sets and associated systems engineering for ten US Navy submarines. The company's Sperry Marine business unit will deliver AN/BPS-16 (V) 4 navigation radar sets for six Virginia-class attack submarines and four guided-missile submarines. Deliveries will begin in late 2005 and continue through 2010, if all options are exercised. The contract includes development of automatic radar-plotting aid software for the Virginia-class submarines and an upgrade of the Voyage Management System, which provides integrated navigation capability and complies with the Chief of Naval Operations'... (read more)

2004-10-05 12:00:00

Satellite-based Radar Imagery in Europe

From 21 to 25 January 2008, the 2nd International SAR oceanography workshop SEASAR-2008 was held in the ERS research institute ESRIN of the European Space Agency on the perspectives of SAR imagery of oceans from space. The workshop was attended by 150 participants from 25 countries from Europe, America and Asia, including Russia - from international Nansen Center (St. Petersburg), ScanEx R&D Center and Space Research Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences. ESA Director of Earth Observation (D/EOP) Volker Liebig opened the workshop, announcing that Europe plans to put into orbit 16 new different Earth observation satellites within the... (read more)

2008-02-11 11:00:15

Radar Altimetry Gains Altitude in Venice

Scientists have gathered in the Italian 'floating city' of Venice this week to talk about radar altimetry: measuring the heights of the global sea surface, freshwater bodies, land and ice using spaceborne remote sensing. Every five years, the '20 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry Symposium' enables participants to focus on the challenges that have been overcome in developing our understanding of the Earth’s surface variations observed by altimetry. Radar altimeters record the surface topography along the satellite’s ground track. They precisely measure a satellite’s height above water, land or ice by timing the interval between the transmission and reception... (read more)

2012-09-25 09:18:39

Planet Ocean Distributes Radac Radar Wave & Tide Sensor

Planet Ocean (UK) has signed an exclusive representation agreement with Radac (The Netherlands). The agreement covers the UK and Republic of Ireland. Radac has been developing the WaveGuide system since 1996. This high-quality radar-based system monitors waves, tides and water levels. The WaveGuide is compact, reliable and robust. Where a fixed structure such as a platform, turbine or jetty already exists, it offers a simpler-to-install, largely maintenance-free alternative to buoy-based systems. The WaveGuide is a standalone system, which requires no calibration. It incorporates a web interface which allows direct access to the wave data. Unique to Radac is the WaveGuide... (read more)

2015-06-01 11:13:14

C-Scope Frequency Diversity Radar Approved by Saudi Ports Authority

Kongsberg Norcontrol IT and daughter company Applied Radar Physics (ARP) have successfully completed the Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) for the Saudi Ports Authority. The C-Scope Frequency Diversity Radar is part of a larger contract announced by Kongsberg Norcontrol IT in May 2006, to provide VTS (Vessel Traffic Service), AIS (Automatic Identification Systems) and high performance radar systems for eight ports throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Kongsberg Norcontrol IT C-Scope Frequency Diversity Radar was launched to meet a growing market need since the introduction of the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code. (read more)

2006-12-22 03:58:01

Real-time Current and Wave Data from HF Radar WERA

Valuable Met-ocean Data for the Port of Rotterdam

To fulfill its mission to “continually improve the Port of Rotterdam and to make it the safest, most efficient and most sustainable port in the world“, Rijkswaterstaat, part of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, decided in 2014 to improve the quality and reliability of the ocean current forecasting. The forecasting is based on a hydrodynamic model operated by Rijkswaterstaat. A transition is currently being prepared, in which the operational 2D model will be replaced by a new fully 3D model, created together with Deltares consultants. Rijkswaterstaat has chosen HF radar technology as additional real-time data input. The shore-based HF... (read more)

2017-05-15 01:55:24

Virtual Contact Lenses for Radar Satellites Improve Sea-level Measurements

Radar satellites supply the data used to map sea levels and ocean currents. However, up until now, the radar's 'eyes' have been blind where the oceans are covered by ice. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now developed a new analysis method to solve this problem. The melting of the polar ice cap would have a drastic effect: sea level would rise by several metres around the world, impacting hundreds of millions of people who live close to coasts. This means one of the most important questions of our time is how climate change is affecting the... (read more)

2018-04-18 09:52:53

HF Radar for Real-time Current, Wave and Wind Monitoring

Wave and current measurements obtained using the WERA and Pisces HF radar systems and Seaview Sensing software are presented here to show that HF radar can provide current and wave measurements with useful accuracy. Pisces has been operational for over a year in the Celtic Sea, providing data every hour. Two recent articles in Hydro international (June and December 2004) refer to oceanographic measurement capabilities of HF radar systems. Ito and Kinoshita discussed the Japan Coast Guard system for ocean current observations. Grønlie provided an overview of ground-based wave measuring radar. I would like to comment on both of these.... (read more)

2008-01-01 01:00:00

International Conference on Synthetic Aperture Sonar and Synthetic Aperture Radar

Acoustics Group of the Institute of Acoustics, in association with the Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society of the IEEE, is organising an International Conference on Synthetic Aperture Sonar and Synthetic Aperture Radar. The conference will be held from 11-12 September 2006, at Villa Marigola in Lerici, Italy. The purpose of this conference is to provide a forum to compare work on systems, processing techniques and examples of results, with the intention of stimulating new ideas in both domains. Particular themes of the conference include, but are not restricted to: synthetic aperture from autonomous vehicles (AUVs and UAVs) processing algorithms non-cooperative... (read more)

2006-07-26 12:00:00