WERA: Remote ocean sensing for current, wave and wind direction

The WERA system (WavE RAdar) is a shore based remote sensing system to monitor ocean surface currents, waves and wind direction. This long range, high resolution monitoring system based on short radio wave radar technology. The vertical polarised electromagnetic wave is coupled to the conductive ocean surface and will follow the curvature of the earth. This over the horizon oceanography radar can pick up back-scattered signals (Bragg effect) from ranges of up to 200 km. Results for various installations from all over the world will demonstrate the features and flexibility of the system: high resolution monitoring (range cells of 300 m) over a range of 60 km or long range applications with 3 km range cell size, all generated with the typical high temporal resolution of 10 minutes. The quality of the resulting data does not depend on the high technical standard of the WERA system only but on the site geometry and environmental conditions as well. These aspects will be discussed to enable interested scientists to estimate the potential of this technology for their specific application.