Deterministic sea waves prediction using mixed space-time wave radar data

Abstract

A number of maritime operations can benefit from a short-term deterministic sea wave prediction (DSWP). Conventional X-band radars have recently been shown to provide a low-cost convenient source of two-dimensional wave profile information for DSWP purposes. However, such rotating radars typically introduce temporal smearing into the data, which introduces errors when traditional Fourier transform-based wave prediction methods are used. The authors report on a new approach for DSWP that avoids such errors. Furthermore, it is not susceptible to the condition number problems that arise with any form of direct or indirect inversion-based approaches. Extensive numerical analyses are conducted to illustrate the effect of the mixed space-time nature of the data on DSWP and the efficiency of the proposed technique to handle it.