According to a recent study of the European Spatial Agency (ESA) in the last two decades more than 200 oil tankers and ship containers sunk as a result of extreme sea conditions and anomalous waves, leading to loss of human lives and environmental disasters. However, tthe scientific research and the technological innovation are opening new horizons about the possibility to monitor sea state through X-band marine radar systems, which are commonly installed on large vessels and at the port authority sites.
As a matter of fact, the smart analysis of the radar echoes arising from the sea surface and received by such systems allows us to get useful information about the wave motion. Moreover, IREA Researchers developed an innovative strategy to estimate both the sea surface currents and the bathymetry, which can be applied in both the terrestrial contexts (coastal monitoring, meteorology, operations support to search and rescue) and in the offshore scenarios (aid to navigation, safety of offshore platforms). Through the smart processing of the signal that is commonly regarded as a disturbance component (clutter) in navigation applications, it is possible to obtain information on the spatial and temporal behaviour of the wave motion. This offers an appealing alternative to the currently adopted methods for the detection of the sea state, such as the ondametric buoys and the HF radars, with the advantage of being extremely easy to install, operate, maintain, and, not least, requiring comparatively low installation and management costs.
This research activity led to the foundation of Remocean S.r.l., which is a Spin-off company of the Italian Research Council.
