HF Radar. Volume 1: System Documentation (Stanford).

The origins of HF surface wave radar for ocean wave and current measurements began with collaborative work at Stanford University and Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the late 1960's. Two of the participants in this project (Drs. Teague and Vesecky) have worked with HF radar observations of the ocean since these early experiments. Since that time, HF radar as an ocean sensing tool has progressed with increasing acceptance in the oceanography community over the last five years. During this grant a new HF radar design was completed, a prototype unit was constructed and is now being tested over Monterey Bay, California from a field site kindly provided at the Long Marine Laboratory of the University of California at Santa Cruz. This operation is in collaboration with the REINAS project at UC Santa Cruz that is also funded by ONR and the results of the radar measurements are being made available over the internet by the REINAS project. Initial results, including radial current field maps at four frequencies and variations of currents with time are to be presented at the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium in Singapore during August 1997. This report begins with a overview of the radar, its installation and some preliminary results. This is followed by two sections describing the operating characteristics of the radar and some further results, including measurements of vertical current shear in the top meters of the ocean. Section III contains the bulk of the system description with further information in volume II. The strong support and excellent suggestions from Drs. Dennis Trizna and Frank Herr at the Office of Naval Research are important in the present and future success of the project.