Method for measuring wave height by means of an airborne radar

1. A method for determining the height of the waves using a radar borne by an aircraft, comprising the following steps:

a first step of pointing the antenna of the radar, said pointing being performed in such a way that the direction targeted by the radar corresponds to the direction of origin of the swell;

a second step of determining the plan of acquisition of the clutter, said plan defining, as a function of the altitude of the aircraft, the number of zones to be acquired, the time of acquisition for each zone and the position and the length of the zones;

a third step of determining, for each zone of clutter defined by the acquisition plan, two parameters PARA1 and PARA2 corresponding respectively, for a given zone, to the standard deviation of the average Doppler frequencies calculated, for each distance cell, over all of the recurrences forming the zone considered and to the ratio of the first parameter PARA1 to the standard deviation of the average Doppler frequency calculated for each recurrence over all of the distance cells forming the zone considered;

a fourth step of calculating, for each of the parameter PARA1 and PARA2 calculated in the third step, the average value of said parameter over all of the zones considered;

a fifth step of actually estimating the wave height from the averages of the parameters PARA1 and PARA2 calculated in the fourth step;

the wave height thus estimated being transmitted to the aircraft to determine the water landing conditions thereof.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the third step itself comprises three sub steps:

a first sub step of acquiring the signal corresponding to the zone considered;

a second substep of Doppler preprocessing which determines the matrix of the instantaneous frequencies of the signal received, represented in the distance/time (or distance/recurrences) space;

a third substep of calculating, for each zone, the value of the two parameters PARA1 and PARA2 from the matrix of the instantaneous frequencies delivered by the second substep.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the second substep of the third step of Doppler preprocessing, implements:

a first operation of calculating the matrix of the instantaneous frequencies of the signal represented in the distance/time (or distance/recurrences) space;

each instantaneous Doppler frequency f d of said matrix being determined, for each distance cell and each recurrence defining the zone considered, from the relationship:

f

d

=

d

⁢

φ

×

PRF

2

*

π

wherein PRF represents the recurrence period of the radar and wherein dφ represents the phase difference, for a given distance cell, between the clutter samples received by the radar for two consecutive recurrences;

a second operation of calculating a noise-free matrix of the instantaneous frequencies, said matrix being obtained by applying a low-pass filter to the matrix of the instantaneous frequencies calculated by the first operation.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the fifth step performs:

the calculation, for each of the parameters PARA1 and PARA2, of a first estimation of wave height, hest PARA1 and hest PARA2 respectively, the calculation being performed for each parameter, by using a given estimator which expresses the wave height estimated as a function of the value of the parameter considered;

the preparation of a consolidated estimation, Hest, of the wave height, this estimation being a function of the first estimations of wave heights hest PARA1 and hest PARA2 previously calculated.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the first estimations of the wave heights hest PARA1 and hest PARA2 are determined by means of linear estimators by the relationship:

hest p =A×p+B,

wherein p is the value of the parameter considered, PARA1 or PARA2, and wherein A and B represent the coefficients, previously determined, of the estimator considered.

6. The method as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the consolidated estimation of the wave height is defined as being equal to the greatest of the first estimations of wave heights hest PARA1 and hest PARA2 :

Hest =max( hest PARA1 ,hest PARA2 ).

7. The method as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the consolidated estimation of the wave height is defined as being equal to the average of the first estimations of wave height hest PARA1 and hest PARA2 .

8. The method as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the consolidated estimation of the wave height is defined as being equal to a weighted sum of the first estimations of wave height hest PARA1 and hest PARA2 .