Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

High frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR) and microwave radars have been important tools for ocean remote sensing for decades. HFSWR, an "over the horizon" radar working at the HF (3-30 MHz) band, has been used for sea surface current, wind, wave parameters measurement and target tracking. However, HF radar faces a few significant challenges that limit its applications. First, its performance drops significantly under high sea states. Second, when an HF radar is installed on a floating platform (e.g., ship) to improve its flexibility in selecting observation areas, the antenna systems undergo platform motion and the resulting motion-induced spectral peaks are detrimental to the radar performance. Compared with HF radars, which can provide long-range and high temporal resolution, but with much coarser spatial resolution, and is unaffected by rain, fog etc., X-band (10 GHz) marine radar (XMR) is a sort of "line-of-site" sensor with high temporal and spatial resolutions. Nevertheless, its performance as an ocean remote sensor may be compromised by rain effects. Global Navigation Satellite System - Reflectometry (GNSS-R), a relatively new bistatic microwave remote sensing technique, has been successfully employed for ocean observations including sea ice sensing. It was found that rain can modify the surface roughness although the path attenuation due to raindrops is not significant. So far, how rain will affect sea ice detection and parameter extraction remains unknown. Newfoundland is an ideal location for ocean related research. A dedicated test bed that integrates multiple sensors does not yet exist here but is highly desirable. The proposal aims to address the above challenges and fill corresponding research gaps by developing both new theoretical models and novel application algorithms as well as building a multi-sensor test bed. The theoretical models will improve the understanding of radio wave scattering from the ocean surface under various conditions, the application algorithms are expected to augment the capacity of the corresponding industrial radar products, and the test bed can provide continuous experimental support for ongoing ocean related research. Building a broad coastal ocean observation network that integrates HFSWR, XMR, GNSS-R and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) in Eastern Canada and the Arctic is a long-term goal of this research. In addition to enhancing marine safety, such a network is expected to provide improved service to various radar data users such as the Department of National Defence, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Canadian Coast Guard and other marine stakeholders such as the shipping and offshore oil and gas industries. The NSERC financial support for this research program will also enable the training of highly-skilled personnel to further augment Canada's R&D capability and expertise in ocean remote sensing and contribute to other high-tech industries as well as defence.