Dependence of Radar Backscatter on the Energetics of the Air-Sea Interface
Abstract
In these times scientists are challenged to reverse dangerous climatic trends. U.S. military strategy will evolve to more passive defense measures. The role of remote sensing satellites cannot be underestimated at this early stage of a whole Earth philosophy. Satellites will provide surveillance data needed to verify arms treaties and the synoptic geophysical data required for either realtime monitoring of environmental conditions or data assimilation into prognostic models. Quality of these remotely sensed data will be limited by our understanding of the physical mechanisms which produced the signals. Surface wind over oceans is an physical phenomenon which can be sensed from remote platforms and which is paramount in monitoring the types of global changes described. Wind affects both strategic and tactical naval operations, drives ocean currents and determines air-sea fluxes important for climate modeling. In 1978 a microwave radar scatterometer onboard SEASAT used an algorithm, SASS1, to infer wind velocity from measured radar returns. Twelve years later, scatterometer data from this middion are still being analyzed to confirm the instrument as a breakthrough in maritime meteorology and oceanography and to reveal short comings of the SASS1 algorithm and the possibility that the radar return is sensitive to environmental parameters other than wind. This study evaluates environmental effects on the functional form, which relates radar echoes from sea surface to sea surface wind vector.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADA237818
Entities
People
- Marie C. Colton
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory