High Frequency (HF) Radar

Applications of High Frequency Radar Data

Nearly every application of ocean monitoring requires, to some extent, measurements of surface current velocities.

Measuring Surface Currents

Ocean currents determine the movement of surface waters, providing critical information to support pollutant tracking, search and rescue, harmful algal bloom monitoring, navigation, and a number of other applications discussed in this report. Existing oceanographic monitoring systems are insufficient to provide the level of detail required by scientists and forecasters to measure surface current speed and direction.

Coast Guard Search and Rescue

The U.S. Coast Guard uses HF radar in its Search and Rescue operations within the mid-Atlantic region.

Tests showed that by ingesting these data into the Search and Rescue system, the search area decreased by 66% over 96 hours.  By reducing the search area, crews can focus their efforts and save more lives.

The U.S. Coast Guard integrated HF radar data into its Search and Rescue system in the mid-Atlantic region in 2009.  A nationwide expansion is expected in late 2011 or early 2012 as part of a collaborative project between NOAA, the U.S. Coast Guard, and IOOS partners in Southern California and the Mid-Atlantic.

Hazardous Materials Spills Response

NOAA is responsible for providing scientific support to the Federal On-Scene Coordinator for oil and hazardous material spills. To support this mandate, NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration Emergency Response Division provides 24-hour, 7 day a week response to spill events.  High frequency radar data is often used to help forecast where the oil or other material will flow.

A large cargo ship, the Cosco Busan, collided with the Bay Bridge in San Francisco Bay in November 2007 causing a breach in the hull, which spilled fuel from its tanks.  As NOAA’s Emergency Response Division tracked the spill, they used HF radar data to determine that the spill would not reach the Farallon Islands marine sanctuary off the coast of San Francisco. This allowed spill responders to focus their equipment and manpower on more threatened areas.

Water Quality Monitoring

In 2008, the City and County of San Francisco’s wastewater system managers used HF radar data. They used daily forecasts based on these data to decide whether to close nearby beaches after finding a defect in the wastewater system would cause a point-source discharge of partially-treated wastewater.

The City of San Diego, Department of Environmental Health uses the Tijuana River Plume Trajectory, which relies on HF radar data, to help guide decisions about water sampling and beach closures. 

In November 2006, the City of Los Angeles used HF radar data to make decisions about beach closures during a major maintenance operation on a 50-year-old outflow pipe. City officials estimate that they could have avoided $750 million in unneeded repairs in previous years, had HF radar data been available then.

 

Monitoring Harmful Algal Blooms

Surface current mapping has proven to be an essential tool for managers and scientists to assess and respond to harmful algal blooms (HABs) and will be instrumental in developing the ability to forecast these events.  When HABs are detected through the California Harmful Algal Bloom Monitoring and Alert Program, HF radar-derived surface currents are used as part of a suite of sampling and data products to help determine their extent and severity.  Surface current data from HF radars operating in the Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems is among the chemical and biological information included in the Pacific Northwest Harmful Algal Bloom Bulletin, which provides comprehensive early warning information for Washington coast razor clam toxicity and amnesic shellfish poisoning events.

Fisheries Management

Ocean conditions change from year to year and the ongoing measurements of surface currents made by HF radar are a crucial backbone for ocean observations along the coast. Unlike buoys and ships, which collect information at single points and times, HF radar provides full, archived mapping, day and night, of our coastal waters up to 200 km offshore. Long-term monitoring of surface currents is used to track impacts on marine populations. Off Bodega Bay, California, researchers are using HF radar derived surface current data to obtain seasonal to annual information on ocean conditions that likely influence the survival rate of young salmon when they first enter the ocean.

Coastal surface currents can also provide important input to establishing and evaluating marine protected areas (MPAs); it provides the only multiyear data with enough spatial coverage to assess how larvae of marine populations are dispersed from the location where they originate to where they settle and grow to maturity. HF radar data from a regional network in California have demonstrated the connectivity between central California marine protected areas (MPAs) by back-projecting trajectories from 10 MPAs over more than a 40-day period. Clarifying this connectivity is an important step toward understanding the movement of invertebrate and fish larvae.

Marine Navigation

High frequency radar data are a core component of a simple but very effective near real time, customized, interactive Website displaying environmental conditions at the entrance to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. http://www.sccoos.org/data/harbors/lalb. Integrating HF radar data with existing conventional in situ sensors will also occur in an upcoming demonstration project in Mobile Bay, Alabama, involving Mobile’s NOAA Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS®) and two CODAR systems, operated by the University of Southern Mississippi.

Ocean Energy Production

US IOOS regional partner, Rutgers University, has been funded by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to develop a 3-D wind resource map to support the offshore wind energy community. The work will use available forecast models and a new deployment of a radar sub-network (four sites) along the southern New Jersey coast. This network creates a higher resolution HF radar coverage area within the Mid-Atlantic Bight.

Locations and Spatial Coverage of High Frequency Radars within the U.S.

Dozens of institutions own and operate HF radars within the United States.  As those institutions move, add or remove radars, efforts will be made to provide updated maps on this IOOS website.

Maps of HF Radars

The maps accessible on this website are the most up-to-date maps of existing and proposed HF radar sites available to U.S. IOOS. Both of the map files listed below can be opened at the same time in Google Earth.

Existing HF Radar Sites and Their Spatial Coverages

Google maps view

Google HFR Maps developed by NOAA/NOS Special Projects:

Google Maps format of HF radar sites and their nominal spatial coverages

Download Maps of existing HF radar sites

Google Earth format of HF radar sites and their nominal spatial coverage, (kmz, 538kb Updated 6.18.2012)

Proposed HF Radar Sites and Their Spatial Coverage

Google Earth format of proposed HF radar sites and their nominal spatial coverage. (kml, 110kb)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Programmatic Topics

Gap Analyses

The gap analyses documents from the Regional Coastal Ocean Observing Systems (RCOOS’s) that provided input to the proposed HF radar site distribution are available at: http://www.usnfra.org/governance/committees.html

Additional Capabilities in Viewing the Near-Real-Time Data Maps

For more capabilities in viewing the near-real-time data maps, please visit IOOS HF radar websites:

• National Data Buoy Center
  
  
• Scripps Institution of Oceanography Coastal Observing Research and Development Center

* To view all KML files it is necessary to have Google Earth installed.  To download Google Earth click here.

The Integrated Ocean Observing System High-Frequency Radar Network: Status and Local, Regional, and National Applications

Marine Technology Society Journal, November/December 2010 Volume 44 Number 6
Download Article (pdf, 568Kb)

 

Ocean Current Radar Calibration with Ships of Opportunity and the Automatic Identification System

• Small Business Innovative Research Phase 1 Project Report
  Download (pdf, 549Kb)
  

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Meetings

Radiowave Operators Working Group, ROWG - 6 Meeting, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL, Nov 13-15, 2012

Details are available at: http://www.joss.ucar.edu/events/2012/rowg/index.html

Radiowave Operators Working Group, ROWG

• ROWG-5 Meeting, Santa Barbara, California, 2011
  Download (pdf, 156Kb)
• 
  ROWG-4 Meeting, Norfolk, Virginia, 2009
  Download (pdf, 81.2Kb)
  

IOOS National HF Radar Technical Steering Team

July 17-18, 2012 - National HF Radar Technical Steering Team Annual Meeting, Boulder, CO

• Summary (pdf)

July 19-20, 2011 - National HF Radar Technical Steering Team Annual Meeting, Boulder CO

• Summary (pdf, 32.7Kb)

July 28, 2010 - National IOOS HF Radar Steering Team Inaugural Meeting

• Agenda (pdf, 10Kb)

• Meeting Notes (pdf, 26Kb)

• Terms of Reference (pdf, 14Kb)

  
  

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