Gijon HF radar wave measurements

The following is an example of wave parameters at Gijon on 24/11/00 at 21:20.

The WERA HF radar was sited on Gijon, on the northern coast of Spain, measuring waves and currents as part of the EU-funded EuroROSE project (MAS3CT980168).

Shown here are measurements of wave parameters that are being made using methods developed at the University of Sheffield. The parameters are obtained from the full directional spectrum, which is itself obtained by an inversion of Doppler spectra provided by the WERA radar system. The white dots on the maps indicate where the inversion has been successful.

Very large changes in the parameters seen over rather small regions are probably due to noise in the radar signals rather than freak wave events. Research into methods to deal with such noisy signals is in progress at the University of Sheffield.

The maps are updated every 10 minutes (last update 12:04 GMT 05/12/2000) and this page will reload automatically every 10 minutes (provided your browser has automatic reloading of pages enabled).

Significant waveheight

Mean period

Directional spectra

Sample directional frequency spectrum colour coded from blue (10% of the maximum) to red (maximum) in the direction towards which the waves are propagating. The arrow shows the radar measured wind direction towards which the wind is blowing.

Position details of the cells whose id is shown in these diagrams (EPS, 148KB)