Project: Harnessing Coastal Radars for Environmental Monitoring Purposes
The instrumenting of coastal radars with a radar server is a cost effective way to monitor marine environment. The server captures the radar images once per revolution and sends them to research institutes and end users. Servers manufactured by Image Soft Ltd have been used to monitor ice fields in Finland since 2011. There are two radars in operative use and two other installations are under way. The data shows ice drift, deformation, leads and ships in a 40x40 km window. Icebreakers and VTS centres can view the data from a web portal. The regular algorithms generating the images from raw radar data are target oriented and utilise only a fraction of the available information. Especially the effect of surface roughness is reduced to the mininum. On the other hand, features like ice type, wave field parameters and presence of oil slicks are manifestly related to the surface roughness. The project seeks to extend the capabilites of the servers to the detection of surface types and wave parameters. Data and backscattering waveform analyses are used to develop new radar server software. The servers are configured to store raw radar data used in the development. This is complemented by measurements of surface properties and waves. The existing servers and portals are used and two new installations with end user portal setup are made to the Greifswalder Bodden and to Szczecin Lagoon which are important navigationally and can generate difficult ice conditions.
| Acronym | HARDCORE (Reference Number: call2012inno-24) |
| Duration | 01/06/2014 - 31/05/2017 |
| Project Topic | Innovative measurement techniques |
| Website | visit project website |
| Network | BONUS |
| Call | Bonus Call 2012: Innovation |
Project partner
| Number | Name | Role | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Finnish Meteorological Institute | Coordinator | Finland |
| 2 | Image Soft Oy | Observer | Finland |
| 3 | Marine Systems Institute at Tallinn University of Technology | Partner | Estonia |
| 4 | Institute of Meteorology and Water Management - National Research Institute | Partner | Poland |
| 5 | Finnish Transport Agency | Observer | Finland |