SEA WAVE MEASUREMENT BY RADAR SYSTEMS: BASIC PRINCIPLES FOR MARITIME ENGINEERS

The availability of plentiful and accurate experimental data on the sea state is a prerequisite of real time activities such as civil protection and navigation safety as well as for the construction of the historical data bases which are necessary for the design of coastal and offshore structure. Unfortunately, while a wealth of applied research is available for researchers working in the development of electronic systems and in the analysis of raw data, many practising maritime engineers still lack a clear reference on the principles, the techniques and the objectives of radar-based systems, which nowadays constitute the largest source of such data. The objective of the paper is to introduce engineers and applied oceanographers to the principles of sea wave measurement by radar and to underline their possibilities and their limits.