The NOC High Frequency (HF) Radar Home Page

Area covered by HF Radar

The two sites are based at Llanddulas/Abergele, North Wales pointing northwards, and Formby, Merseyside pointing roughly west-south-west. They measure the sea surface every 20 minutes by sending out pulses over the sea surface and measuring the response signal. Combining information from the two sites gives enough information to calculate the current and wave parameters.

At each site, there are four transmit antennae set out in a square, and 16 receive antennae arranged in a straight line parallel to the shoreline, and the two sets of antennae are usually spaced about .5 km apart. To find out more about the individual sites, click on the Llandulas and Formby radar sites.

Land based radar is very useful for measuring the sea surface, as it covers a large area and negates the need for expensive ship time.

Data is sent to NOC hourly, but processed monthly at the end of each calender month. Time series data is available from 1st August 2005 onwards, and can be downloaded from this website. NB. This system was switched off 6th December 2011 signalling the end of the experiment. Raw data is available now, and Quality Controlled data will be available later. (See 'Data' above/left)

The WERA hardware and measuring software is supplied by Helzel Messtechnik, the grid conversion and collection controlling software by Neptune Radar Ltd, and the inversion software to produce waves by Seaview Sensing Ltd.