Detection of Breaking Waves Using X-Band Pulse Radar in the Nearshore Region

An X-band pulsed Doppler microwave radar has been used to determine the characteristics of breaking waves. Field experiments were conducted at the Shuang-Si estuary in the north of Taiwan in the winter of 2005. Analyses on maxima radar cross section and Doppler frequency shift are done to characterize wave breaking zones. Based on observations of breaking waves, the wave breaking zones are shown to be located at water depths of 1.8 to 2.2 m in the experimental site. In general, the results indicate that a radar system has the potential to delineate the spatial variation of breaking waves clearly and that this is sufficient to achieve a measurement operation for near-shore air-sea interaction events.