UHF Radar Designed for Inshore Wave Watcher
and Ocean Power Application
Wei Shen (IEEE Student Member) Biyang Wenˆand Fan Ding
School of Electronic and Information, Wuhan University, 430079 Wuhan, Hubei, P.R.China
ˆ
Email: bywen@whu.edu.cn
Abstract—this paper presents a remote sensing method for the
measurement of inshore wave energy, which can be used for the
investigation of some regional coast for building wave power
plants and monitoring the waves near dykes. It is designed to
operate at UHF channel, and it is a portable and low power
system, it can measure the movement of sea surface
simultaneously without probing into the water. The field test on
the beach of Zhujiajian Island proved that the system can be
used successfully.
Keywords- UHF radar system; ocean power energy; wave farm.
I. INTRODUCTION AND BLACKGROUD
Wave power refers to the energy of ocean surface waves
and the capture of that energy to do useful work — including
electricity generation, desalination, and the pumping of water
(into reservoirs). Wave power is a form of renewable energy
[1]. Wave power generation is not currently a widely employed
commercial technology until now. Engineers have come up
with a variety of schemes to harness the power of waves.
However, the wave power is sometimes so strong, that it could
cause very serious damage to the equipments for the
investigation and power generators. The investigation of wave
energy in some regional area is also an essential issue to
oceanic researchers.
In a sea state, the energy density per unit area of gravity
waves on the water surface is proportional to the wave height
squared, according to linear wave theory:[2,3]
1 measure the current velocity, but wave is not dominant on the
E= ρ gH m2 0 (1)
16
Where E is the mean wave energy density per unit
horizontal area (J/m2), the sum of kinetic and potential energy
density per unit horizontal area. The potential energy density is
equal to the kinetic energy [2], both contributing half to the
wave energy density E, as can be expected from the
equipartition theorem.
Guçadoura Wave Park is the world's first commercial wave
farm. It is located near Póvoa de Varzim north of Porto in
Portugal The farm uses three Pelamis wave energy converters
to convert the motion of the ocean surface waves into
electricity. The farm was officially opened on the 23
September 2008 by the Portuguese minister of the economy [4].
Researchers are looking at the possibility of offshore wave
power plants. In Scotland, Wavegen Company tried such a
project in 1995 but the structure was damaged before it could
Supported by NSFC (National Natural Science Foundation of China) 60671039
978-1-4244-2487-0/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE
be lowered into the sea because of the horrible weather
conditions[5], The assessment and recording of the wave
environment, and analysis of spectral data, in the proposed area
of the wave farm over as long a period as possible is essential
for (1) Predictions for energy capture and machine power
generation levels; (2) Identifying site specific design
parameters such as predominant swell direction and swell
window, extreme loading conditions and average site
conditions; (3) Analysis and prediction of seasonal variability
of the wave environment with relevance to project construction
and project operation and maintenance. From the aspect of
engineering and security, normally the energy generators are
built not far away from the coast. In order to research and
monitor the inshore wave energy, the authors provide a remote
sensing method to measure movement of waves.
The short range UHF radar system (Short rang Ocean
States Measurement and Analysis Radar: OSMAR-S) is
successfully developed from HF Radar system by Radio
Propagation Lab. of Wuhan University. HF radar is a
technique to monitor sea state over the horizon, But HF radar
is usually not used to detect inshore waves. And a UHF radar
system named “Riversonde” is developed by CODAR Ltd.
and many field tests have been taken to measure river current
[6, 7]. A coherent UHF radar system was developed by C.
Randell for detection of small targets in high sea-states in
Canada [8]. In December 2006, an experiment of UHF radar
system was successfully accomplished on the bridge of
Yangtze River by the authors [9], the experiment was to
river, and some experiment was carried out on the Lake to
study fresh water reflection of electromagnetic waves [10]. In
order to research sea wave reflection and measure the wave
energy, we take an experiment on the beach of East China Sea.
II. DESCRIPTION OF UHF RADAR SYSTEM
The system adopts the Frequency Modulated Continuous
Waveform (FMCW) mechanism, utilizing the frequency and
phase of echoes to get some kinds of parameters of surface sea
state, such as velocity of surface sea current and wave height
spectrum. The measurement does not require any sensors in the
water. It includes antennas and feeding systems, frequency
generator, synchronization controller, receive channel, solid-
state transmitter, data acquisition and signal processing module.
Fig.1 gives the sketch of radar system.
 with a range resolution of 15m and a velocity resolution of
1.95cm/s, and the number of sweep periods can be configured
even more to calculate more reliable wave energy estimation.
Table I gives the specification of the system.
TABLE I
SPECIFICATION OF UHF RADAR SYSTEM
Specifications for Transceiver Specifications for Antennas
Freq. 305-315MHz Freq. 300-350MHz
Sweeping Band 10MHz Sort Yagi
Sweep time 25ms Type TDJ-350C
Transmitter Polarize Method Vertical
Gain >45dB Impedance 50Ÿ
Noise Figure 7.5dB Flat <2dB
Fig 1 Sketch of Water Wave Measurement
Receiver Gain 13dB
Based on theory of Crombie, the Bragg-resonant frequency Simin -95dBm Beaming width <30o
will be:
SFDR 60dBm Bandwidth 50MHz
Fb = 0.102 × f 0 = 0.102 × 310 = 1.796 Hz (2) Noise Figure 6.89dB VSWR <2

The Doppler bandwidth should be twice more than Bragg

frequency and the maximum Doppler shift frequency f d max [11]
of the echoes scattered by the fastest moving waves, the
sampling rate for Doppler is set to Fs=40Hz. It means the radar
system finishes 40 sweep periods in one second. According to
the formula (3), ( λo is the wavelength of radio wave, vmax is
the maximum radial velocity of moving targets). And we can
calculate that vmax = 10m / s .It is enough for hydrological
measurement inshore waves.
­ Fs = 2 f d max
° (3)
® 2
° f d max = λ ⋅ vmax
¯ o
III. ),/(' EXPERIMENT ON THE ISLAND
Small amplitude long (shallow water) waves all travel at
the same speed in water of given depth h, but where the bottom
depth is changing, their direction of travel may change. More
generally, as waves more into shallow water their period
remains constant but phase velocity decreases and therefore the
wave height increases. Hence, if a series of parallel-crested
waves approach at an angle to a straight shoreline over a
smooth sea bottom which shoals gradually, they progressively
change direction as the end of the wave nearer to the shore; as a
result, the waves become parallel to the shore [13, 14].

The signal processing flow is given in Figure 2, after the IF

signals is sampled, according to Doppler theory, the double
FFT algorithm can be used to produce a range and
Doppler(velocity) display of the radar target data, the first FFT
process is performed over a pulse repetition period to obtain
range cells [12]; which are the elements of a row of a matrix,
the second FFT is performed over several pulses of these data
to obtain target Doppler or velocity, which are several column
elements of the matrix. The result of the first FFT processed by
DSP will send to Host by USB, and the data is accumulated for
the second FFT operation, this process is finished in the Host.
Fig 2: Radar echo signal processing flow
And according to the calculation of second FFT for velocity
demodulation, the Number of sweep period should be
configured as N = 2n , we can set N = 1024, the whole time for
sampling is 25.6s. Based on the waveform parameters we
designed, the system is operated at the frequency of 310 MHz
Fig 3 the sketch map of coast and wave features
So the wave front is parallel to the beach (as shown in Fig
3), the direction of inshore wave is definite, so narrow beam
antennas are use in the field test, and the pattern of transmit and
receive antennas are perpendicular to the beach line. The radar
system is located on the Beach of Zhujiajian Island East China
Sea. Fig.4 gives the picture of Yaji antenna, which is used as
transmit antenna, and the receive antenna is placed at the other
side of the Metal Net, the Net is used to obstruct the direct
wave from transmit antenna to receive antenna, which is
connected to the ground. The obstruction is not so ideal, but the
system can work well in this way. Fig 4.b shows Google map
of test point, the points on this map indicates the position of
radar antennas. Point 1 is the location where the system tested
on the beach, and Point 2 locates on a cliff, as we can see from
the map, we can also see the Rip Current from the color of the
Google photo.

Fig 4.a
Fig 4 Picture and Map of the experiment
IV.
Field experiment of the radar system on the beach of East
China Sea was conducted during Sept 2007. During that time,
a big storm happens far away from the island, but the energy
of storm is spread in a way of swell and so on. So the energy
of waves is strong, and wave height of inshore wave nearly
1.5m, the echo spectrum is given as follow: The echo
spectrums are different when distance changes. The strong
moving breaking waves, which are near to the beach, give
strong backscatter of echo and the radar also gives the velocity
distribution according to the Doppler shift frequency, the
spectrum is given as follow:
So after several days’ experiment on the beach we move the
radar system onto a cliff as indicated as Point 2 on the map Fig
4.b, where the test point is nearly 40 meters above sea level,
the wave under the cliff is different from the one on the beach.
Where there are no breaking waves generated by the shallower
and smoother bottom, the storm has gone and the sea surface
becomes relatively clam. So during the experiment on the cliff,
Fig 4.b we didn’t get the echo like the spectrum in Fig 6.a. and here is
the result of echo backscattered received by radar on the cliff
shown as Fig 7. The two wide lines are the positive and
RESULTS AND ANALYSIS negative Bragg scatter energy, which represent the wave
energy move towards and away from radar respectively (wave
Phase velocity). And Fig 8 gives the spectrum of a certain
distance. The dashed line on the spectrum is Bragg frequency
in still water, the spectrum is quite different from the result
measured on Yangtze River by the same system, which gave
shape first order peaks [9], because the current is the dominant
movement on the river surface other than wave, but the
situation on sea surface is quite different. First order peaks and
second order peaks are sometimes mixed together, they can’t
be distinguished well. There is a clear limitation to Barrick’s
theoretical calculation [15] of the second-order part of the
spectrum which renders it inappropriate under highly sea state
and higher radar frequency [16], But surely we can use the
energy reflected from sea surface to estimate the roughness of
the sea surface, Fig 9 gives the statistic result of energy around
Bragg line changing with the time. Non-stop 24 hours (Sept 20,
2007) data sampling was finished, and the echo of a certain
distance (24th range cell) is selected for analysis. With the
stable measuring conditions, the reflection of backscatter
energy is proportional to the wave energy including potential
(Wave Height) and kinetic energy (Doppler Shift).

Fig 5. Range Doppler Echo Spectrum

Echo Spectrum
Echo Spectrum

Time:12/09/2007 09:23
90 Site: Zhujiajian Island Beach 55 Time:12/09/2007 09:23
Distance:300m Site: Zhujiajian Island
85 Distance: 600m
50
80
Relative Power/dB

Relative Power/dB

75
45
70

65 40

60
35
55

50 30

45
-8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10
Frequency/Hz Frequency/Hz

Fig 6. a Fig 6 .b Fig 7 Range Doppler Echo Spectrum

Echo Spectrum
Fig 6 Echo spectrum of the test on the beach Time:20/09/2007 17:05:27
70 Site: Cliff of Zhujiajian Island
Distance: 420m
Fig 5 is the Spectrum of Range-Doppler, in which the 65

moving surf waves gives strong backscatter energy and the

Relative Power/dB

60
echo generated by rip current is also indicated on the spectrum.
Fig 6.a and b give the Doppler spectrum of the distance of 55

300m and 660m respectively. Fig 6.b shows the waves are 50

moving toward radar and Fig 5.c indicates the Rip current as 45

formerly described. 40
-15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20
In order to study the inshore wave of different situation, Frequency/Hz

and also the output of transmitter is only nearly 2~3 W, the Fig 8 Echo spectrum of test on the cliff
transmit energy is not so strong to detect the wave far away.
 BackScatter Energy of 24th Range cell [10] Ma, Z. G., et al., ‘UHF surface currents radar hardware system design’
58
IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, Vol. 15, No. 12,
Backscatter Energy
56
904–906, 2005.
[11] ZIJIE, Y., et al.: “Waveform Parameters Design for Sea State Detecting
54
HF Ground-Wave Radar”, J. Wuhan Univ. (Natural edn.), vol.47,
52
pp.528-531, May 2001.
Relative Power/dB

[12] W. Shicai et al,.’Waveform Analysis for HF Ground Wave Radar’,

50
J.Wuhan Univ.(Natural edn.),Vol 47,pp 519-527,May 2001
48 [13] S.Pond, G.L.Pickard, ’Introductory Dynamical oceanography’ 2nd
Edition,PERGAMON,1983.
46
[14] Robert H. Stewart, ‘Introduction to Physical Oceanography’ September
44 2006 Edition Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M
University.pp293-301
42
[15] D.E.Barrick, ‘Remote Sensing of sea state by radar’ in ‘Remote Sensing
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Hours/h
of the Troposhere’,ed V.E. Derr, Ch12, US Govt Printing Office:
Washington D.C.1972
Fig 9 Aptitude of the reflected echo of a certain distance [16] 0/+HURQDQG$35<7=‘9+) ocean surface radar measurements in
the Inlet Dynamics Initiative: Algarve (INDIA) Project’, 27th Int. Conf.
V. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION On Coastal Eng., 339, 2000.
In this paper, the authors provide a remote sensing
method for measuring wave energy near the coast, which can
be used for investigating and monitoring for renewable wave
and tide energy exploitation. The backscatter reflected energy
can be used to estimate the roughness of the sea surface and
the movement of waves, and it can be used in all-weather
conditions. During the experiment, the detecting range was not
so far, because the power of transmitter was quite low and the
beam patterns of transmit and receive antennas were not
precisely controlled. By further research, the system can cover
larger region for wave energy investigation.
VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like thank CSC (China Scholarship
Council) and NSFC for funding and X.J.Huang, J.Yang, Z.L.
Lee for their work in the Lab.
REFERENCES
[1] Willie D.Jones, ‘Ocean Power Catches a Wave’, IEEE Spectrum,
Volume 45, Number 7, July 08,2008 p11-12.
[2] Phillips, O.M. ‘The dynamics of the upper ocean’, 2nd edition,
Cambridge University Press. 1977,ISBN 0 521 29801 6.
[3] Goda, Y. ‘Random Seas and Design of Maritime Structures’. World
Scientific. 2000,ISBN 978 981 02 3256 6.
[4] Emily Ford. ‘Wave power scientist enthused by green energy’. The
Times. Retrieved on 2008-10-15.
[5] http://www.geni.org/globalenergy/library/technical-articles/generation/
tidal-wave-ocean-energy/msnbc/waves-run-this-power-plant/index.shtml
[6] Teague, C.C., Barrick, D.E.; Lilleboe, P., et al.: “Canal and river tests of
a RiverSonde streamflow measurement system”, Geoscience and
Remote Sensing Symposium, 2001.IGARSS Volume: 3, 9-13 July 2001
Pages: 1288 - 1290 vol.3.
[7] Teague, C. C., et al., “Geometries for streamflow measurement using a
UHF RiverSonde,” Proc. of the 2003 IEEE International Geoscience and
Remote Sensing Symposium, 4286–4288, New York, 2003.
[8] Randell, C.; Power, D, ‘Ocean clutter characteristics for a coherent
Doppler UHF radar ’OCEANS 2000 MTS/IEEE Conference and
Exhibition Volume 3, 11-14 Sept. 2000 Page(s):1515 - 1520 vol.3
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/OCEANS.2000.881819
[9] S. Wei, W. Biyang, ’UHF Radar System Tested on the Bridge of
Yangtze River’, IET RADAR 2007, International Conference On Radar
Systems, ISBN 978-0-86341-849-5, 2007