Interferometric radar measurement of ocean surface currents

A new method of measuring surface currents using an interferometric synthetic aperture radar is presented. An airborne implementation has been tested over San Francisco Bay near the time of maximum tidal flow, resulting in a map of the east-west component of the current. Only the line-of-sight compo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1987-08, Vol.328 (6132), p.707-709
Main Authors: Goldstein, R. M., Zebker, H. A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Dynamics of the ocean (upper and deep oceans)
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
External geophysics
Marine
Oceanography
Oceans
Physics of the oceans
Radar
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Description
Summary:A new method of measuring surface currents using an interferometric synthetic aperture radar is presented. An airborne implementation has been tested over San Francisco Bay near the time of maximum tidal flow, resulting in a map of the east-west component of the current. Only the line-of-sight component of velocity is measured by this technique. Where the SNR ratio was strongest, statistical fluctuations of less than 4 cm/s were observed for ocean patches of 60 x 60 m.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/328707a0