Significant Wave Height Estimation Using UAV

This paper focuses on sea surface roughness estimation using the vertical electromagnetic (EM) field measured by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). For the purpose of measuring the signal, an embedded software-defined radio (SDR) based EM payload was constructed. This includes a custom-built front end composed of a low noise amplifier-limiter circuit. This drone receiver system was deployed at the Coastal Land-Air-Sea Interactions (CLASI) campaigns in Monterey, CA in 2021 and Santa Rosa, FL in 2023. The transmitters were deployed on buoys that simultaneously measured the significant wave height ( $H_{s}$ ). From the measured drone profiles, a significant wave height estimate was created and compared to the ground truth $H_{s}$ values from the buoys. Inversion results indicated that estimation is feasible with further exploration to be done.