A system to monitor ocean wave fields

The directional characteristics of ocean surface wave fields are of great impact on the physics above, on and below the ocean surface. Numerous oceanographical investigations may not be conducted without considering the wave dynamics. For all kinds of human operations on the ocean knowledge of the actual wave field is crucial. Therefore the monitoring of the ocean wave fields is of urgent necessity. The presented system has been designed for the quick and complete detection of the two dimensional ocean wave energy. The sensor part of the presented system is provided from an ordinary commercially available navigational radar. Hardware was designed to A/D convert and store the raw data. The analytical part of the system calculates and displays the ocean wave energy. The system has already proven its usefulness in a series of scientific experiments as well as in practical offshore application. In this paper the quality of the system is discussed on a data base taken onboard the `FORSCHUNGSPLATTFORM NORDSEE´ during five months in the winter season 1990/91