Application of polar-current-shell-based algorithm for surface current extraction from shipborne X-band nautical radar images

In this paper, the application of the polar-currentshell- based current inversion algorithm to shipborne X-band nautical radar images is presented. After the 3-D image spectrum is generated by a 3D-FFT of the radar image sequence, the extracted dispersion shell is converted to a polar form - the "polar current shell" - from which the current velocity of encounter is determined by incorporating a robust sinusoidal curve fitting. The algorithm is applied to shipborne radar data that were collected on the east Coast of Canada. The results are compared with those obtained by a WaMos system and agreement between the two indicates the validity of the proposed algorithm.