A first approach to SeaSonde quality control

Abstract

Australian Coastal Ocean Radar Network (ACORN) has been tasked to provide quality controlled (QC) high-frequency (HF) radar to the Australian public under the direction of the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS). Through this directive ACORN has developed a novel automated method for applying QC to HF radar data for one of the instruments that it deploys and maintains; the phased-array device. This paper presents the first approach at developing a novel QC method that can be automated and applied to cross-loop devices in ACORN. SNR data are used to separate data points into a signal band in which the SNR reduces with range, and a system noise band in which the SNR is constant with range. An 80% reduction in data coverage results.