Abstract
Detection of rip current occurrence is important for safety management of swimming beach. In this study, an X-band radar is employed to observe locations of rip-channels and occurrences of rip current at Uchinada Beach, Kanazawa, Japan. The radar was installed on the back-shore, and the effective coverage of the radar was approximately 1,000 m. In the time averaged radar images, which were processed for every 2 minutes, rip channel locations and rip heads were tracked for 40 days in August and September of 2015. The validity of the results was verified from results of morphological surveys and buoy releases. Rip heads were connected with rip channels, and this was evident when the wave height of the area was more than 0.3 m. Rip channels migrated in a complex manner during the observation.
