Abstract: Wave-measuring radar systems utilize X-band radar echoes to retrieve oceanographic parameters such as wave height and ocean currents, and are widely employed in marine environmental monitoring. However, conventional wave-measuring radar systems suffer from issues in the data acquisition module, including image offset and difficulty in miniaturization, which adversely affect the measurement accuracy of X-band radar. This paper proposes an integrated heterogeneous field-programmable gate array (fpga) design based on the Zynq hardware platform, enabling synchronized acquisition of radar antenna azimuth and echo data, as well as real-time algorithmic processing. The hardware architecture of the image acquisition module is redesigned by consolidating previously discrete subsystems into a unified platform. Using Zynq, simultaneous acquisition of antenna azimuth and radar echoes under a common timing reference is achieved, effectively eliminating image offset. Furthermore, by leveraging the advanced extensible interface-direct memory access (axi dma) interface of Zynq, the time overhead for data acquisition and transmission is reduced below the pulse repetition interval corresponding to the radar’s minimum range, thereby enabling full-range radar data collection without data loss or overflow. Two sea trials were conducted, during which synchronous observations were performed using both the X-band radar and wave buoys. Validation results demonstrate excellent agreement between significant wave heights derived from the X-band radar and those measured by the buoys.

Key words: X-band wave-measuring radar, radar image acquisition, data acquisition system, Zynq, wave inversion