On the mechanism for imaging ocean waves by synthetic aperture radar

Abstract

Based on the analogies between spectral analysis of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, the two-frequency technique, and the technique of self-mixing of Doppler microwave backscatter for surfaces with periodically varying reflectivity, the SAR imaging of ocean waves is considered as a process of measuring correlation between the values of backscattered SAR radiation in different azimuthal positions of the platform. In this way a relatively simple explanation is given for the focusing effect and for the wave image contrast dependence on the integration time. Results of this approach are in agreement with those obtained in previous works by another (much more complex) manner: the wave image focus shift is proportional to half of the wave phase speed (the wave traveling along the line of flight), and the image contrast does not decrease with an increase the integration time.