Improvements in ocean surface radar applications through real-time data quality-control

Ocean surface current data provided by shore-based high frequency (HF) radar show sporadically non-realistic current vectors in some areas, particularly at the outer edges of the radar range. However, it is important to always provide data which is reliable to the end-users, as applications based upon the usage of measured data may be affected if the quality of the data is not adequate. Furthermore, in the case of time sensitive applications, quality control (QC) needs to be performed immediately on each data set when available. The paper briefly reviews the QC procedure which evaluates the current velocity data of the WERA array-type HF radar in near real-time and assigns a quality value on every single grid-cell measurement. Results on evaluating such method on a pair of WERAs of the University of South Florida are summarized. It is also demonstrated how the quality values obtained really reflect the quality of the measurements in comparison to an in-situ instrument (ADCP). A discussion on how different applications of HF radar - such as automatic warnings, drift estimation, forecast and prediction products, visualization features - may benefit from real-time quality control is included.