CODAR: Coastal Ocean Dynamics Applications Radar

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth/SMAST have deployed a CODAR station at the National Park Service Cape Cod National Seashore site near Nauset, Massachusetts. CODAR, introduced at NOAA in 1977 by D.E. Barrick, is a high-frequency remote-sensing radar system used to measure the surface currents of the coastal ocean. Each station maps the radial components of ocean surface current fields by transmitting a radio frequency signal that is back-scattered off ocean surface waves to a receiving antenna. Employing the principles of Bragg scattering and the Doppler shift, CODAR data is used to calculate the speed and direction of the radial component of surface current out to a range of about 150 km. Our long range CODAR on outer Cape Cod is paired with a similar Rutgers University CODAR on Nantucket to produce hourly surface maps of surface current vectors with a spatial resolution of about 6 km.

Sample our menu of Preliminary UMD/SMAST Surface Current Data Maps

Other CODAR-related web sites:

Rutgers Coastal Ocean Observation Laboratory: scroll to the bottom of this page for links to tutorials on surface current measurment and surface wave measurment.

University of Alaska Fairbanks, S.A.L.M.O.N. Program, CODAR in Alaska

University of Hamburg WERA(WEllenRAdar):WERA is a modification of CODAR which allows simultaneous measurement of currents and waves using the University of Hamburg current algorithm and University of Sheffield [UK] algorithms for ocean wave parameters.

University of Hamburg Shipborne Extension of CODAR