Uses of radar at sea-a practical perspective

Radar has many applications ranging from remote sensing to military surveillance which have resulted from many years of research and development. These technical developments have allowed users to benefit from less cluttered displays and clearer images. However, a number of mariners were thought to still be using radar as a hazard indicator and/or the main navigation aid, ignoring the use of an electronic chart since the radar has proven reliability and adequacy. In order to ascertain the situation more reliably, a small study was undertaken which investigated the ways in which radar was used on board nine vessels ranging from a large container ship to a small open inter-islands passenger ferry. The study was part of a larger project which allowed the radar usage to be situated within the full utilisation of all the electronic aids on each vessel, thus generating a more accurate picture of the working environment and the use of the radar within it. This paper describes the study and, from a practical viewpoint, suggests future developments for the use of radar at sea. It should be noted that apart from a paper (Mills, 1995) on usability aspects of sonar which has an output similar to that of radar, there are no known academic studies covering such areas as comprehensibility of the display for untrained users or, more generally, user needs analysis for the general marine population