HF radar sites are located in different coastal areas of the Iberian Peninsula (IP): Galicia (North-West IP), Strait of Gibraltar (South IP), Ebro Delta area (East IP), Gulf of Cádiz (South-West IP), Vigo coastal area (North-West IP), SE of the Bay of Biscay (North IP), Ibiza Channel (between the eastern part of the IP and the westernmost islands of the Balearic Islands)

Wave direction; Wave height and period statistics; Wave height estimates; Horizontal velocity of the water column (currents)

Continuous coastal ocean surface current maps in different coastal areas of the Iberian Peninsula and adjacent waters measured by High-Frequency Radars (HFR) since 2009. HFR is nowadays the unique land-based remote sensing technology providing continuous maps of near-real surface currents (between 0.5-2 m) over wide areas (out of about 200 km from near shore) with high-spatial (0.25-12 km) and temporal resolution (hourly or higher). Complementarily, HFR systems also provide estimations of wave height, period and direction. The operation principle of HFRs for measuring coastal ocean surface currents is based on the Bragg resonant backscatter phenomenon: the HFR antenna transmits electromagnetic waves with frequencies of ~3-46 MHz (associated to wavelengths of 100-10 m) and the ocean waves of half the transmitted electromagnetic wavelength scatter the pulse back to the antenna. Two or more HFR sites are needed for computing the map of total surface current vectors in the overlapping coverage area. The use of this technology for high spatio-temporal resolution coastal monitoring presents many advantages compared with the lower temporal resolution of satellite observations in shallow and coastal seas and with the sparse information provided by the conventional in-situ methods. HFR is routinely used for real-time monitoring of ocean currents in many places around the world with a growing range of near-real time applications (e.g. search and rescue and oil spill monitoring, navigational safety, model assessment and model improvement, throughout data assimilation). HFR derived products (e.g. lagrangian trajectories, gap-filled data, lagrangian coherent structures) are used in long-term data applications, such as lagrangian studies and connectivity between marine areas and studies of ocean processess. Other cutting-edge applications are ship detection, surface wind and wave data retrieval, tsunami detection, storm surge monitoring and improvement of coastal altimetry. The real-time surface current IBERORED_HF data set meets the requirements of the European common data and metadata model, compliant with Climate and Forecast metadata Convention version 1.6 (CF-1.6), OceanSITES convention, CMEMS-INSTAC requirements and INSPIRE directive. A total of 6 institutions, operating 20 HFR sites are contributing the operational data set.

Harbours Authority. Physical Environment Department
Av. del Partenon 10
Madrid

28042
Spain