FY 1989

SAR measurements of ocean waves and other surface phenomena during the GOASEX Experiment

Napolitano, D.J., J.F. Vesecky, F.I. González, and S. Peteherych

In Proceedings of the 1989 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, 10–14 July 1989, 2331–2334 (1989)

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is an important remote sensing tool for observation of the ocean over a large range of scales from 10's of meters to 1000's of km. Unique properties of SAR include self-illumination and cloud penetration because of the microwave frequencies employed. To evaluate SAR for observing the ocean surface, the SEASAT satellite was launched in 1978. To validate SAR ocean measurements, the Gulf of Alaska Experiment (GOASEX) was set up to provide measurements of the ocean surface and atmosphere within a region imaged by SAR. This data set is important because it contains a significant portion of the surface truth data collected during the SEASAT mission. With this data set, direct comparison between SAR and buoy ocean measurements can be made since the surface truth data was obtained in situ at the SEASAT overpass time. In this paper was compare SAR and surface observations of ocean waves. Further, we assess several models for SAR imaging of the ocean developed by Alpers, Harger, and Rotheram and Macklin. Lastly, we utilize the SAR for examining windrows on the ocean surface.