Proof of Feasibility of the Sea State Monitoring from Data Collected in Medium Pulse Mode by a X-Band Wave Radar System

X-band marine radars can be exploited to estimate the sea state parameters and surface current. However, to pursue this aim, they are set in such a way as to radiate a very short pulse to exploit the maximum spatial resolution. However, this condition strongly limits the use of radar as an anti-collision system during navigation. Consequently, a continuous change of radar scale is needed to perform both the operations of waves and current estimations and target tracking activities. The goal of this manuscript is to investigate the possibility of using marine radar working in a medium pulse mode to estimate the sea state parameters and surface current, while assuring suitable anti-collision performance. Specifically, we compare the capabilities of the X-band radar for sea state monitoring when it works in short and medium pulse modes and we present the results of a comparison based on data collected during two experimental campaigns. The provided results show that there is good agreement about the estimation of wave parameters and the surface current field that make us hopeful that, in principle, it is possible to use the medium pulse mode to achieve information about sea state with a reasonable degradation.