HF Radar Ibiza data from date 2012-06-01

Continuous hourly coastal ocean surface current maps in the Ibiza Channel measured by High-Frequency Radars (HFR). HFR is nowadays the unique land-based remote sensing technology providing continuous maps of near-real surface currents (0.9 m) over wide areas (out of about 85 km from near shore) with high-spatial (3 km) and temporal resolution (hourly). The operation principle of HFRs for measuring coastal ocean surface currents is based on the Bragg resonant backscatter phenomenon: the HFR CODAR SeaSonde combined-antenna transmits electromagnetic waves with frequency of 13.5MHz (associated to wavelength of 22.2 m) and the ocean waves of half the transmitted electromagnetic wavelength (11.1 m) scatter the pulse back to the antenna. Two or more HFR sites are needed for computing the map of total surface current vectors in the overlapping coverage area.