Journal Article

Sea Surface Wind Speed Retrieval from Marine Radar Image Sequences Based on GLCM-Derived Texture Features

Wang, Lei, Qiu, Haiyang, Ruan, Xingbo, Huang, Jingxi, Wang, Hui

2025

Overview

Sea surface wind speed is a key parameter in marine meteorology, navigation safety, and offshore engineering. Traditional marine radar wind speed retrieval algorithms often suffer from poor environmental adaptability and limited applicability across different radar systems, while existing empirical models face challenges in accuracy and generalization. To address these issues, this study proposes a novel wind speed retrieval method based on X-band marine radar image sequences and texture features derived from the Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM). A three-stage preprocessing pipeline—comprising noise suppression, geometric correction, and interpolation—is employed to extract small-scale wind streaks that reflect wind field characteristics, ensuring high-quality image data. Two key GLCM texture features of wind streaks, energy and entropy, are identified, and their stable values are used to construct a segmented dual-parameter wind speed model with a division at 10 m/s. Experimental results show that both energy- and entropy-based models outperform traditional empirical models, reducing mean errors by approximately 49.3% and 16.7%, respectively. The energy stable model achieves the best overall performance with a correlation coefficient of 0.89, while the entropy stable model demonstrates superior performance at low wind speeds. The complementary nature of the two models enhances robustness under varying conditions, providing a more accurate and efficient solution for sea surface wind speed retrieval.

• Publisher: MDPI AG,MDPI
• Subject: Accuracy / Aircraft / Algorithms / Atmospheric boundary layer / Correlation coefficients / energy value / Entropy / entropy value / Environmental engineering / Error reduction / Forecasts and trends / GLCM-derived features / Image quality / Image sequencing / Marine engineering / Marine meteorology / Meteorology, Maritime / Navigation safety / Neural networks / Noise reduction / Offshore engineering / Parameters / Radar / Radar equipment / Radar imaging / Radar systems / Retrieval / Satellites / Superhigh frequencies / Surface layers / Surface wind / Texture / Wind speed / X-band marine radar