Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

High-frequency (HF) radars, operating with wavelengths of 10 to 100 metres, have been in use since the Second World War. Over the last three decades, and with the improvements in modern high-speed electronics, there has been a recognized potential for using these radars in novel contexts, such as ocean remote sensing. A particular form of operation of these radars, commonly referred to as the surface wave (SW) mode, is especially useful in regions of high conductivity such as the ocean surface. As the name implies, in such an environment, the signal from a shore-based HF surface wave radar (HFSWR) is able to follow the curvature of the earth, travelling large distances beyond the normal line-of-site limit of conventional microwave radar. As it travels over the ocean surface, the signal, affected by waves and winds as well as targets such as ships and icebergs, returns to the radar site with information about the features with which it has interacted. One of the continuing challenges of users of these radars is to develop and refine techniques for extracting information such as waveheights, surface currents, and target paths and speeds from the radar signal. Conventionally, HFSWR has been operated with transmitters and receivers being in the same location. For about the last fifteen years, however, researchers at Memorial University, being funded by NSERC, theoffshore oil industry and various government agencies, have been developing techniques to use these radars in the so-called bistatic mode in which transmitters and receivers are widely separated. Another feature covered by this proposal is the incorporation of antenna motion into the models. These initiatives have the potential of providing increased environmental information at reduced cost. This country has become a world leader in both the theoretical and applied aspects of HFSWR, in large part due to the continued support of bodies such as NSERC. Research and development in this area have led to the export of large operational facilities. These and other installations will continue to engender interest from military, maritime, and scientific users.