Problems Of Imaging Ocean Waves With Synthetic Aperture Radar

Progress is reported on three tasks designed to provide information to evaluate the operational use of SAR, so that ultimately, meaningful ocean shallow-water wave spectra and coastal wave height information can be supplied to the Navy in real-time. Under Task 1, a limited literature search was conducted to ascertain problems encountered in imaging sea states with SAR. The search indicated four fundamental problem areas where basic research is needed, before SAR can become a useful tool for the Navy. Under Task 2, solutions to SAR signal processing problems were explored and geometrical coorections of SAR wave imagery were considered.