Bistatic Vessel Detection from the CODAR SeaSonde Bistatic Vessel Detection from the CODAR SeaSonde

Large numbers of ships travel up and down the East Coast of the United States daily, ranging from recreational vessels to cargo vessels. Especially busy areas are the approaches to New York Harbor. New York currently is the third- busiest port in the United States and it is growing rapidly [ 1]. The large number of vessels that travel in and around New York, and the expectation of increased numbers, makes Maritime Domain Awareness important for this region. To increase Maritime Domain Awareness, Rutgers University is now using their SeaSonde r HF Radar coastal ocean current and wave monitoring network for vessel detection. The vessel detection system focuses on the approaches to New York Harbor, where ship traffic is greatest. The capability of this system was tested along the New Jersey coastline in October 2012. The vessel detection software, developed by CODAR Ocean Sensors and Rutgers University, was installed on two 13 MHz HF Radar sites. The data analysis for this paper focused on the period from October 22, 2012 to October 26, 2012. The three sites utilized were located in Belmar, Sea Bright and Seaside Park, New Jersey. The network was run in multistatic mode, which is a combination of monostatic and bistatic transmitters and receivers. A transmitter and receiver were located at the Sea Bright and Seaside Park stations. Each of these stations operated in monostatic mode where the transmitter and receiver are geographically collocated. A transmitter was placed at the Belmar site and acted as a bistatic transmitter where its signal was received at the Sea Bright and Seaside Park stations. So a total of four signals were processed using the three stations. The stations were able to operate in bistatic mode by synchronizing their signals through the use of the Global Positioning System ( GPS) time signal. The bistatic data vessel detection data obtained from the two sites were compared against the Automatic Identification System ( AIS) for verification. The use of bistatic vessel detection data will increase the number of detections on a single vessel by increasing the range of the system as well as adding different look angles when the vessel passes through the Bragg or zero Doppler clutter regions Maritime Domain Awareness is vital for areas with heavy ship traffic, such as New York Harbor. The Automatic Identification System ( AIS) is a self- reporting system, and may not always be used. The vessel detection capability of the HF Radar system will provide information on ships that are not reporting on AIS. The use of vessel detection from HF Radar will provide a valuable layer that the US Coast Guard can utilize to increase its Maritime Domain Awareness.