• Physique/Physique/Physique Atmosphérique et Océanique
  
• Planète et Univers/Océan, Atmosphère
  
• Physique/Physique/Géophysique
  
• phys/phys.cond/phys.cond.cm-gen
  
• Planète et Univers/Sciences de la Terre/Océanographie
  

High-frequency (HF) coastal radars measure current velocity at the ocean surface with a 30-100 km range and 1-3 km resolution, every 0.25-1 h. HF radars are well suited to many applications, such as search and rescue (SaR), oil-spill mitigation and ecosystem management. Here we present a first organized core of 12 HF radars installed in five sites in four countries (Greece, Italy, France and Spain) within the European MED project, the Tracking Oil Spill and Coastal Awareness (TOSCA) network. Dedicated experiments tested radar capabilities to estimate transport driven by currents, which is the key feature for all the above applications. Experiments involved the deployment of drifters, i.e., floating buoys, acting as proxies for substances passively advected by currents. Using HF radars the search range is reduced by a factor of 1.6 to 5.3 after 24 h. The paper also underlines the importance of sharing common tools for HF radar data processing and the need to mitigate radio frequency interference. The effort can be regarded as an initial step toward the creation of a Mediterranean or European HF radar network, crucial for any European integrated ocean observing system (IOOS).

A Mediterranean Ocean Observing System for the Environment (MOOSE) has been set up as an interactive, distributed, and integrated observatory system of the North West Mediterranean Sea in order to detect and identify long-term environmental anomalies. In this framework, the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO) operates two couple of High Frequency Surface Wave Radars (HFSWR). HFSWRs provide synoptic observations of sea surface currents with high temporal (0.25-1 h) and spatial (1-3 km) resolution and long range (30-100 km). They can therefore be used to study the variability of the current as well as eddy dynamics. One site, based on the WERA (Helzel Messtechnik) technology and installed near Toulon, is operational and monitored in real-time since more than 3 years. It is composed of two WERA systems featuring respectively a non-linear receiving array and a full bistatic configuration, both working in Direction Finding mode. The second site, intended to extend further East the coverage of the Observatory, was set up in 2014 near Nice with two SeaSonde (Codar) systems. We present here an overview of the HFSWR network, the surface current mapping facility offered by the system, and recent observational results and applications.

We present a coastal ocean current forecasting system using exclusively past observations of a high-frequency radar (HF-Radar). The forecast is made by developing a new approach based on physical and mathematical results of the nonlinear dynamical systems theory that allows to obtain a predictive equation for the currents. Using radial velocities from two HF-Radar stations, the spatiotemporal variability of the fields is first decomposed using the empirical orthogonal functions. The amplitudes of the most relevant modes representing their temporal evolution are then approximated with functions obtained through a genetic algorithm. These functions will be then combined to obtain the hourly currents at the area for the next 36 h. The results indicate that after 4 h and for a horizon of 24 h, the computed predictions provide more accurate current fields than the latest available field (i.e., persistent field).

HF radar measurements are used to optimize surface wind forcing and baroclinic open boundary condition forcing in order to constrain model coastal surface currents. This method is applied to a northwestern Mediterranean (NWM) regional primitive equation model configuration. A new radar data set, provided by two radars deployed in the Toulon area (France), is used. To our knowledge, this is the first time that radar measurements of the NWM Sea are assimilated into a circulation model. Special attention has been paid to the improvement of the model coastal current in terms of speed and position. The data assimilation method uses an ensemble Kalman smoother to optimize forcing in order to improve the model trajectory. Twin experiments are initially performed to evaluate the method skills. Real measurements are then fed into the circulation model and significant improvements to the modeled surface currents, when compared to observations, are obtained.