The utility of SAR to monitor ocean processes

This report investigates the utility of using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to monitor the Earth's oceans. The report consists of three parts which include: (1) a review on the present capability of SARs to monitor ocean processes, (2) a status report on the processing and preliminary analysis of UPD-4 and UPD-6 data collected during the MARSEN'79 Experiment, and (3) a collection of journal articles and symposia papers which resulted from this ONR-funded ERIM research. The review of the present status of SAR's utility to monitor the oceans includes the detection and measurement of gravity waves, currents, long-period waves, internal waves, frontal boundaries, bottom topographic features, surface winds, surf zone conditions, oil slicks, and sea ice. Results of this analysis indicate the UPD-4 X-band SAR imagery is not significantly improved, with regard to visibility of waves on the imagery when motion compensation adjustments are incorporated into the processing of the SAR signal histories. Selected passes of UPD-4 and UPD-6 X-band imagery have been digitized and comparisons between SAR generated wave spectra and surface measured spectra were made.