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CODAR Ocean Sensors, located in
Mountain View, California, conducts research, design, manufacturing
and support of high frequency (HF) radar systems primarily
for ocean current and wave monitoring.
CODAR founders began working in the field of HF radar as early as the 1960's. In
1968, Donald Barrick (future co-founder and President of CODAR Ocean Sensors)
established the theoretical basis of HF sea scatter that allows both current
extraction as well as sea state monitoring. During the early 1970s, Barrick and
others, working in the U.S. Department of Commerce (NOAA) research laboratories,
demonstrated the utility and accuracy of these measurements with large phased
array radars.
From then until 1984, Barrick led a research team within NOAA's Wave Propagation
Laboratory that demonstrated the feasibility and accuracy of smaller, transportable,
HF radars for real-time current mapping to distances 60 km from shore. In 1984
the core team that invented these systems left the Government to eventually form
what became CODAR Ocean Sensors CODAR , developing low-CODAR t commercial versions.
Over the past 30 years, hundreds of journal papers have appeared that explain
the techniques and establish accuracies by independent comparisons.
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CODAR Today
The CODAR design of the 1980's has been improved upon over the last 20 years
and is now replaced with the SeaSonde®. The SeaSonde is the
only commercially available HF radar system with a proven track record and
stands at the forefront of precision current measurement and ease of utility.
Designed and built by CODAR Ocean Sensors, the SeaSondes have a small antenna
footprint, low power output and 360 degree possible viewing angle which minimizes
siting constraints and maximizes coverage area. They can be remotely controlled
from a central computer in your office and set for scheduled automatic data
transfers. The SeaSonde is ideal for fine scale monitoring in ports and small
bays, as well as open ocean observation over larger distances up to 70 km.
For extended coverage, the Long-Range SeaSonde can observe currents as far
as 200 km offshore..
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Staff at CODAR Ocean Sensors are the world’s experts in HF radar theory
and system design. Our company has produced approximately 80% of all HF radars
ever built worldwide, with a total operating time of over 2,000,000 hours. Hardware
and software design that have been continually improved upon over the last 30
years allows the SeaSonde high quality data output, with robust field performance
and user-friendly software making it both convenient and affordable for a wide
variety of users and applications.
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Historical Timeline of HF Radar
1955: Crombie discovers experimentally
that Bragg scatter produces strong HF sea echo to first
order.
1966: Barrick enters field of HF radar.
1968-1972: Barrick derives/publishes
quantitative solutions for first & second order sea
scatter.
1969-1973: Barrick at NOAA (U.S. Dept of
Commerce), with Scripps & Stanford, use HF phased arrays
on San Clemente Island to validate theories behind HF current
and wave measurements.
1973-1983: Barrick leads team at NOAA to
develop more practical alternatives to large HF phased arrays
for coastal current and wave monitoring. Patents were filed
and over 100 papers published on CODAR concepts within government.
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Historical Timeline of the Company and the SeaSonde
1984: Barrick and key staff within NOAA leave to form CODAR
company to commercialize HF radar for use by others.
1986: CODAR Ocean Sensors, Ltd. officially founded.
1983-1988: Over 13 first-generation CODARs sold that employ
compact crossed-loop system and direction finding.
1983-1988: CODAR technology adapted and tested on North Sea
offshore oil rigs.
1988-1992: Second-generation SeaSonde and WaveSonde units
designed that:
- Are more compact than older CODAR
- Are much more efficient and versatile, but lower-power signal wave form.
- Employ desktop PC for data acquisition/processing in place of minicomputer.
- CODAR t half the price of the older CODAR* 1992: First SeaSondes and Offshore
WaveSonde sold.
2002: 100th CODAR SeaSonde unit built and sold worldwide.
2006: Company celebrates it's 20th Anniversary in business.
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