Deformable sea floating large antenna arrays for high frequency surface wave radar

The overall objective of this work is to study and to realize a sea-floating antenna array: definition of the radiating element, implementation of sea effects, optimization of the array geometry, auto-calibration. The problem for sea-floating antenna array is that each phase centre element has a different movement, generated by the waves and wind. The present paper deals with this problem. Based on a classical modeling of the sea surface (with its gravity spectrum) and on a typical antenna (for instance a vertical monopole), simulations of simple radar processing are performed in order to show and to quantify the effect of the alteration of the antenna array. The first section introduces the modeling of the antenna array, along with the modeling of the sea surface. The bases of high frequency surface wave propagation are also presented. The second section deals with the results of the simulations. Finally, conclusions are drawn and further work is introduced.