Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine March 2018 - 3

DOI. No. 10.1109/MAES.2018.183001

From the Editors of the Special Issue on HF Radar
Daniel W. O'Hagan, Gordon Frazer, Joe Fabrizio, Stuart Anderson

his is the second of two issues of the IEEE Aerospace and
Electronic Systems Magazine devoted to HF radar. The first
issue, published in December 2017, contains seven papers
dealing primarily with HF skywave radar; we refer readers to the
editorial in that issue to acquaint themselves with the background
to this publishing project, and to the papers therein to learn of some
exciting developments in the field.
This second part contains six papers, but here the focus is on
HF surface wave radar and on hybrid systems. As noted in the December issue, we opted to call the first part Special Issue on HF
Skywave Radar and this second part Special Issue on HF Radar,
for ease of reference, but of course there is an extensive commonality of technology and scientific principles.
There have been few previous compilations of papers on HF
radar aimed at the non-specialist reader, and fewer still that sample the global state of this technology. The present issue contains
papers from Canada, China, Germany and Singapore, while Part
One included contributions from a total of five countries. Various
constraints of a non-technical nature inhibited contributions from
several other nations active in the field. Nevertheless, it is our hope
that, by casting the net widely, we have captured not only the prime
technical thrusts of this technology but also the ever-expanding
recognition of its potency and relevance to important surveillance
and monitoring tasks.
The papers in this second collection span a wide range of
radar designs and applications. In the first paper, Sun explores
the advantages and disadvantages of different configurations of

Daniel W. O'Hagan

MARCH 2018

Joe Fabrizio

shipborne HF radars and explains how space-time adaptive processing and MIMO can ameliorate the spread clutter problem.
Next, El-Darynli describes the design and implementation of an
HF surface wave radar based on concepts adopted from softwaredefined radio, focusing on application to coastal remote sensing.
The following paper, by Ji, examines the limitations of compact,
small aperture HFSWR systems and looks at the ways integrated
design can overcome some of those limitations. Wei, in his contribution, revisits the concept of a hybrid configuration in which
skywave illumination is followed by surface wave propagation to
the receiver, illustrating his discussion with results from an experimental system. The same type of hybrid configuration is employed by Chu, who focuses not on the design but on the remote
sensing missions of this design, treating in detail the application
to wind direction estimation. Finally, Dzvonkovskaya reviews
the application of HFSWR to the crucial task of tsunami warning,
employing the approach based on current velocity signatures.
Her paper compares system designs and is illustrated with results
from real events.
We conclude this editorial by expressing our sincere gratitude,
first to the authors who engaged fully with our endeavour despite
their many competing priorities, and second, to the small group
of HF radar experts across the world who devoted their time and
expertise to the review process. Their time and dedication has ensured the high standard of this double Special Issue. We can truly
claim that this has been a community effort.
Enjoy your Special Issue on HF Radar.

Gordon Frazer

IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE

Stuart Anderson

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine March 2018