• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.83-91
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• 2018

In this paper, usefulness of marine radar for water waves measurement in coastal waters is presented. We installed a marine radar to acquire radar images of water wave around light beacon at Jujeon in Ulsan. Also, a series of analysis procedures for obtaining the wave information from the acquired image is described with a schematic diagram. We compared analysis results of radar images with measurement values using wave height gauge at light beacon. In order to improve accuracy of analysis results, detailed water depth information is essential. In conclusion, in case of the use of radar for water waves measurement, it is shown that it is very necessary to increase the accuracy of measurement by consideration of the water depth in the dispersion relation of water waves.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.208-218
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• 2012

Numerical simulation technique has been developed to calculate microwave backscattering from water surface. The simulation plays a role of a substitute for experiments. Validation of the simulation was shown by comparing with experimental results. Water area observations by microwave radar have been simulated to evaluate algorithms and systems. Furthermore, the simulation can be used to understand microwave scattering mechanism on the water surface. The simulation has applied to the various methods for water area observations, and the utilizations of the simulation are introduced in this paper. In the case of fixed radar, we show following examples, 1. Radar image with a pulse Doppler radar, 2. Effect of microwave irradiation width and 3. River observation (Water level observation). In addition, another application (4.Synthetic aperture radar image) is also described. The details of the applications are as follows. 1. Radar image with a pulse Doppler radar: A new system for the sea surface observation is suggested by the simulation. A pulse Doppler radar is assumed to obtain radar images that display amplitude and frequency modulation of backscattered microwaves. The simulation results show that the radar images of the frequency modulation is useful to measure sea surface waves. 2. Effect of microwave irradiation width: It is reported (Rheem[2008]) that microwave irradiation width on the sea surface affects Doppler spectra measured by a CW (Continuous wave) Doppler radar. Therefore the relation between the microwave irradiation width and the Doppler spectra is evaluated numerically. We have shown the suitable condition for wave height estimation by a Doppler radar. 3. River observation (Water level observation): We have also evaluated algorithms to estimate water current and water level of river. The same algorithms to estimate sea surface current and sea surface level are applied to the river observation. The simulation is conducted to confirm the accuracy of the river observation by using a pulse Doppler radar. 4. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image: SAR images are helpful to observe the global sea surface. However, imaging mechanisms are complicated and validation of analytical algorithms by SAR images is quite difficult. In order to deal with the problems, SAR images in oceanic scenes are simulated.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.344-347
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• 2008

Ocean surface waves may be modified by ocean current and their observation may be severely distorted if the observer is on a moving platform with changing speed. Tidal current near a sill varies inversely with the water depth, and results spatially inhomogeneous modulation on the surface waves near the sill. For waves propagating upstream, they will encounter stronger current before reaching the sill, and therefore, they will shorten their wavelength with frequency unchanged, increase its amplitude, and it may break if the wave height is larger than 1/7 of the wavelength. These small scale (${\sim}$ 1 km changes is not suitable for satellite radar observation. Spatial distribution of wave-height spectra S(x, y) can not be acquired from wave gauges that are designed for collecting 2-D wave spectra at fixed locations, nor from satellite radar image which is more suitable for observing long swells. Optical images collected from cameras on-board a ship, over high-ground, or onboard an unmanned auto-piloting vehicle (UAV) may have pixel size that is small enough to resolve decimeter-scale short gravity waves. If diffuse sky light is the only source of lighting and it is uniform in camera-viewing directions, then the image intensity is proportional to the surface reflectance R(x, y) of diffuse light, and R is directly related to the surface slope. The slope spectrum and wave-height spectra S(x, y) may then be derived from R(x, y). The results are compared with the in situ measurement of wave spectra over Keelung Sill from a research vessel. The application of this method is for analysis and interpretation of satellite images on studies of current and wave interaction that often require fine scale information of wave-height spectra S(x, y) that changes dynamically with time and space.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.213-223
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to estimate the spherical wave parameters that appears in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image acquired over the coast of Chukk, Micronesia. The retrieval of ocean wave parameters consists of two main stages: the first is to determine the dominant wavelengths by Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) over 16 sub-image areas and the second is to estimate wave slopes and heights using dispersion relationship under various water wave conditions. It is assumed that the spherical waves are linear and progressive. These type of waves have the range and azimuth components traveling in radial directions. The azimuth travelling waves are more affected by the velocity bunching mechanism and it is difficult to estimate the wave parameters for these affected areas in SAR imagery. In order to compensate these effects, the velocity bunching ratio (VBR) based on modulation transfer function (MTF) was compared with the intensity ratio for neighbor area in the radial direction in order to assign the spherical wave properties for azimuthally travelling waves. Dispersion relation provides the good estimates for the wave heights for all the selected sub-image areas in the range of 1m to 2m. VBR based on MTF was found to be 0.78 at wave height of 1.36m, while the intensity-based VBR was 0.69 which corresponds to the height of 1.75m. It can be said that the velocity bunching accounts for azimuthally travelling spherical waves and the difference results from the sea-bottom effects.