ISTITUTO NAZIONALE
DI OCEANOGRAFIA E DI GEOFISICA SPERIMENTALE
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII
SCHOOL OF OCEAN AND EARTH SCIENCE
AND
TECHNOLOGY
High-Frequency
Coastal Radars in
Northern Adriatic
2002-2004
Major Sponsors:
Italian Ministry of Education,
University and Research
United States Office of Naval Research
High-Frequency Coastal Radars
in Northern Adriatic
The Project
As part of the DOLCEVITA program high frequency (HF)
Northern Adriatic Sea starting in September 2002 to mo
areas of the Northern Adriatic for more than a year. The
United States Office of Naval Research and the Italian M
Research.
The Radars
Three radar sites were installed along the
Italian coast south of the Po River delta. The
northernmost site located on the delta (Faro di
Goro, Goro) includes a linear array of 16
antennas (beam-forming), whereas the
intermediate (Punta Marina, Ravenna) and the
southernmost (Monte San Bartolo, Pesaro) sites
consist of 4 antennas installed in a square
pattern (direction-finding). The HF radars used
are WERA systems manufactured by Helzel
Messtechnik in Kaltenkirchen, Germany in
collaboration with the University of Hamburg.
They are operated near 16 MHz in both beamforming and direction-finding modes.
The Real-time Graphics
Several graphics including
Doppler spectra and maps of
radial currents and of surface
currents are produced at hourly
intervals and are posted in
near-real time on a dedicated
web site:
http://doga.ogs.trieste.it/doga/sire/d
2002-2004
coastal radars were installed in the
onitor the surface circulation in most
e radar project was sponsored by the
Ministry of Education, University and
dolcevita/radar.html
The Results
For each radar, radial currents are obtained from the Doppler shift of Bragg-lines
in the spectrum data. Maps of radial currents are produced at intervals ranging
between 20 minutes and one hour. These radial maps are combined to produce
maps of the surface currents on a uniform grid with 2-3 km spacing. Radarinferred surface currents can be overlaid on maps of sea surface temperature and
chlorophyll to describe the near-surface dynamics. The radar data include
information about surface currents at a variety of scales, from tides to the
seasonal signal. Surface wave parameters (peak direction and significant wave
height) can also be extracted from the data of some of the radars.
The Applications
The potential of the HF coastal radar
technology
for
non-scientific
applications is significant, especially
for operational marine activities.
Graphical representations (current
maps, etc.) and summaries of the
radar data can be made available in
real time through a dedicated web
page to many end-users including the
coast guards and other agencies to
assist search and rescue operations,
aid oil spill trajectory predictions,
and contribute to pollution discharge
studies. These instruments, being
over-the-horizon radars, also have
potentials for tracking ships and lowflying aircrafts up to a distance of
100 km, beyond that of existing
microwave radars.
Remote Sensing Group, Department of Oceanography, OGS
The Remote Sensing Group (Sistemi Remoti - SIRE) was created in April 2002 to organize and develop research activities
related to remote sensing techniques, including satellite remote sensing, HF coastal radars, Lagrangian systems and
seismological monitoring. The main research activities of the SIRE Group include, but are not limited to,: (1) The
acquisition, near-real processing, web posting and archiving of remote sensing, Lagrangian and seismological data; (2)
Basic and operational research in coastal and open seas using data based on remote sensing and Lagrangian systems;
and (3) The development and improvement of remote sensing algorithms and techniques; (4) The technological
development of new Lagrangian systems. In particular, the SIRE Group is responsible for the European project
MFSTEP/MEDARGO in which autonomous profilers will be deployed to measure, throughout the Mediterranean Sea, the
temperature and salinity in the water column and currents at intermediate depths. These data will be assimilated in
quasi-real time into forescating models of the Mediterranean. In collaboration with Italian and international scientists,
studies on the surface circulation of the Adriatic (as part of the DOLCEVITA project), the Tyrrhenian and the Black Seas
are in progress. The SIRE Group is also involved in studies of the optical properties of seawater. Optical measurements
taken in the Gulf of Trieste and in other regions of the Adriatic Sea allow a better interpretation of satellite ocean color
data.
Satellite Oceanography Laboratory, University of Hawaii
The Satellite Oceanography Laboratory was created in 1990, to develop oceanographic research programs based on
remotely sensed parameters. From 1990 to 2000, it operated a receiving station for the NOAA satellites, and produced
daily map of sea surface temperature over the central pacific. In 1994, it was responsible for the deployement of more
than 100 satellite-tracked drifting buoys in the central pacific. Remote sensing focus shifted from 1994 to 2000 on
synthetic aperture radars, using the NASA DC-8 airborne SAR, Radarsat, ERS-2, ENVISAT and the Shuttle Imaging Radar.
In 1998, the satellite oceanography laboratory developed in collaboration with the University of Hamburg a new
generation of phased array high frequency radars for mapping coastal current, and is in the process of developing buoymounted and ship-mounted versions of the radars.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the following individuals for helping with the installation logistics and with the data
processing: Jérome Aucan, Riccardo Barbanti, Alessandro Bubbi, Roberto Cecco, Cédric Chavanne, Davide Deponte,
Michele Deponte, Bénédicte Dousset, Io Flament, Mael Flament, Klaus-Werner Gurgel, Thomas Helzel, Oliver Koshe,
Paolo Mansutti, Elena Mauri, Philip Moravcik and Giulio Notarstefano. We would like to thank the following individuals
and institutions for providing us with permits to install the WERA stations and for helping with the local logistics:
Web sites:
http://doga.ogs.trieste.it/doga/sire/dolcevita/radar.html
http://satftp.soest.hawaii.edu/hfradar/
Points of Contact:
Principal Investigator at OGS: Dr. Pierre-Marie Poulain – [email protected]
Principal Engineer at OGS: Ing. Fabio Brunetti – [email protected]
Principal Investigator at SOEST: Dr. Pierre Flament – [email protected]
Principal Engineer at SOEST: Derek Young – [email protected]
Monte San Bartolo, Pesaro: Ente
Parco Naturale Monte San Bartolo,
Provincia di Pesaro – Urbino, Comune
di Pesaro, Comando 28°Regg. Fant.
Pavia, ARPAM Pesaro, Dr. F. Piperno.
Faro di Goro, Goro: Consorzio per la
Gestione del Parco Regionale del
Delta del Po, Comune di Goro,
Provincia di Ferrara, Corpo Forestale
dello Stato, Fabrizio Farinelli e
Valentino Gianella.
Punta Marina, Ravenna: Capitaneria
di Porto di Ravenna, Agenzia delle
Dogane, AGIP Petroli, ARPA Ravenna
ISTITUTO NAZIONALE DI OCEANOGRAFIA E DI GEOFISICA SPERIMENTALE
Borgo Grotta Gigante 42/C – 34010 Sgonico (Trieste) – Tel. +39 04021401 – Fax +39 040327307
Via Treviso, 55 - 33100 Udine - Tel. +39 0432 522433 - Fax +39 0432 522474
Via Isonzo, 32 - 00198 Roma - Tel. +39 06 85355016 - Fax +39 06 85355016
[email protected]
http://www.ogs.trieste.it
Realizzazione: Pierre-Marie Poulain – Studio Grafico Nino Bon – Stampa: Stella Arti Grafiche - Trieste
The DOLCEVITA Project in the Northern Adriatic Sea
DOLCEVITA (Dynamics of Localized Currents and Eddy Variability in the Adriatic) is an international project focusing on
the Adriatic Sea sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The projects spans between October 2001 and
September 2004, but its experimental phase was mostly concentrated in the September 2002 – June 2003 time period.
DOLCEVITA involves several oceanographers, both experimentalists and modelers, of the United States and Europe. The
main scientific objective of the DOLCEVITA project is to quantify the kinematic and dynamic properties of the mesoscale
circulation in the Northern Adriatic and study the effects of forcing by winds and river run-offs. The monitoring of
surface currents by means of HF coastal radars is an important experimental component of the project.