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   William J. Plant  
      Principal Research Scientist  
      AIRS Department  
      Applied Physics Laboratory  
      University of Washington  



   Office of Naval Research  



We have operated our coherent, X-band radar, RiverRad, at the Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility in Duck, NC in order to compare our measured return with that obtained by Merrick Haller of Oregon State University using a non-coherent, X-band, marine radar and with video images obtained by Rob Holman of the same institution.

The purpose of this experiment was three-fold:
  1. Calibrate the marine radar against RiverRad, which is calibrated on our test range.
  2. Examine the differences in HH and VV return from breaking waves.
  3. Attempt to obtain along shore currents from the Doppler shifts in the VV return.
All of these measurements will augment the marine radar, which operates only at HH and is presently uncalibrated. They will not provide the spatial wave images possible with the marine radar, however.



Preliminary results of this experiment. The images from the marine radar (large rectangle), RiverRad (wedge), and video (square) are superimposed. The vertical red feature is the Corp of Engineers pier. Note that all instruments show breaking at a bar about 200 m offshore.