The RITMARE coastal radar network and applications to monitor marine transport infrastructures

Coastal radars provide information on the environmental state of oceans, namely maps of surface currents at timeintervals of the order of one hour with spatial coverage of the order of several km, depending on the transmissionfrequency. The observations are of crucial importance for monitoring ports and ship tracks close to the coast, providingsupport for safe navigation in densely operated areas and fast response in case of accidents at sea, such asoil spill or search and rescue. Besides these applications, coastal radar observations provide fundamental supportin MPAs surveillance, connectivity and marine population circulation.In the framework of the Italian RITMARE flagship project coordinated by CNR (Consiglio Nazionale delleRicerche), a coastal radar network has been designed and implemented with a number of innovative characteristics.The network includes both HF and X-band radars, allowing coverage of wide areas with different spatialand temporal resolutions. HF radars cover up to 80 km with a spatial resolution ranging between 1 and 5 km,while X-band radars provide 5 km coverage with a spatial resolution of 10 m. Joining these two capabilities, theRITMARE coastal radar network enables both a highly effective coverage of wide coastal areas and integratedmonitoring of different phenomena, thus allowing the collection of current and wave parameters and detection ofbathymetries of both open sea and coastal areas.A dedicated action to foster interoperability among data providers has been undertaken within RITMARE; an ITframework is under development to provide software tools for data collection and data sharing. It suggests standard,data format definitions, Quality Control strategies, data management and dissemination policies. In particular, theimplementation of tools exploits both standards of OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) and web services offeredto manage, access and deliver geospatial data. Radar data produced in RITMARE by the coastal radar networkrepresent a challenge to the nowadays definition of OGC web services: the network will suggest and test solutions.