The Application of Marine X-band Radar to Measure Wave Condition during Sea Trial

The visual observation of wave condition depends on the observer's skill and experience. Also, the environmental conditions such as light and cloud heavily influence the visual measurement. In the speed test of sea trial, the wave measurement should be objective and accurate. In this paper, the problems of visual measurement and their effects on speed test are described. To overcome those problems, we developed the wave measurement system using commercial marine X-band radar, WaveFinder. The system installed at inland base was calibrated by waverider buoy and then the system's operability was defined. Onboard tests had also been performed three times for formal wave measurement to correct the ship speed. The results illustrated very good agreement with visual observation by experts. It can be concluded that the system would be useful to measure wave and swell information for the sea trial, irrespective of day and night.