Estimating Radar Backscatter from Water Wave Surface Using X Band FMCW Radar

Information of the water wave properties is very important in a near shore region, in a ship, for level measurement in a tank, or for sea keeping and manoeuvring. In this work, we present a method based on X band radar using Linear Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar backscatter to estimate the various parameters of the wave like wave height, Doppler frequency, wave velocity, wave period, wind direction and possible way to detect breaking waves. Radar is developed at Society for Applied Microwave Electronic Engineering and Research (SAMEER) IIT BOMBAY campus. A wave tank has been used for experimentation in which probes generate water waves, The experiments are conducted at Hydraulics lab, Ocean Engineering department IIT Bombay.