Event Details

Coastal Ocean Radars: Results and Applications

Presenter: Prof. Mal Heron, IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society Distinguished Lecturer
Supervisor: IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society Victoria Chapter

Date: Tue, May 14, 2013
Time: 12:00:00 - 00:00:00
Place: ECS 660

ABSTRACT

Abstract: A descriptive overview of the Australian Coastal Ocean Radar Network (ACORN) is given with some background about how sites are selected and configured. A suite of results and applications emanating from the ACORN network is presented, including Lagrangian Tracking; assistance to management in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park; assistance in the salvage of a grounded ship; and the observation of cold fronts in the Southern Ocean. To be delivered at a level suitable for a technical audience.

Biography:
Professor Mal Heron is Chief Researcher in the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. His PhD work in Auckland, New Zealand, was on radio-wave probing of the ionosphere, and that is reflected in his early ionospheric papers. He changed research fields to the scattering of HF radio waves from the ocean surface during the 1980s. Through the 1990s his research has broadened into oceanographic phenomena which can be studied by remote sensing, including HF radar and salinity mapping from airborne microwave radiometers . Throughout, there have been one-off papers where he has been involved in solving a problem in a cognate area like medical physics, and paleobiogeography. Occasionally, he has diverted into side-tracks like a burst of papers on the effect of bushfires on radio communications. His present project of the ACORN is about the development of new processing methods and applications of HF radar data to address oceanography problems. He is currently promoting the use of high resolution VHF ocean radars, based on the PortMap high resolution radar.

This event is free and open to the public. This presentation has been scheduled at lunch time to maximize accessibility. Feel free to bring a bag lunch.

For more information contact:
Ross Chapman, CEOS, chapman@uvic.ca
Jim Collins, Faculty of Engineering, j.s.collins@ieee.org
Nick Hall-Patch, IOS, nhp@ieee.org
Dale Shpak, Camosun College, daleshpak@gmail.com