Some fundamental statistics associated with ocean surface current measurement using a dual station, long-range, high-frequency ground wave radar system

Raytheon Systems Canada Limited, in association with Northern Radar Inc (NRI), have designed and built two long-range High Frequency Ground Wave Radar (HFGWR) facilities at Cape Race and Cape Bonavista, NF, Canada. Even though these systems can routinely monitor offshore target activity, the data stream for target detection can also be used to generate surface currents. Since each station is capable of providing estimates of the radial components of the surface current field, the vector current field can be reconstructed from the radial data via geometric considerations. To explore this possibility, sample datasets from both stations were collected in June of 2000 and subjected to a dual station analysis scheme. The treatment presented here will discuss some of the statistics associated with the radial current data as well as the dual station technique used to generate the surface current field. Finally, the radar current estimates will be compared with current meter data collected near the Hibernia platform.