Multi-Band Radar for Ocean Characterization

The continued improvement in wide-band radar technology has prompted a re-evaluation of current radar methods for advances in all areas of application. Radar signals have long been used to collect remote data from the ocean surface, and so, new methods which utilize wide-band technology should be developed. METRATEK has unique experience with such systems because we have been building them since 1984 and have been flying one for the past four years. A METRATEK in-house Model 100 or Model 200 ultra wide-band instrumentation radar will be used as a test bed for waveform design and processing. These radars are highly versatile, full featured, software controllable systems which have been used in a variety of applications. Using METRATEK In-house Radars and data we expect to design and test waveforms for the characterization of the ocean using wide-band radar technology with a minimum of hardware prototyping costs and risk. The final system design will consist of a more cost effective implementation of the features that were determined useful during testing.