Estimates of currents in the nearshore ocean region using interferometric synthetic aperture radar

Microwave remote sensing of the ocean surface using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is of great interest due to its high resolution and the potential of nearly instantaneous coverage of large areas. The experience accumulated in ocean imaging by SAR indicates that there are substantial difficulties in interpretation of the obtained images of ocean wave systems. Ocean surface currents are almost impossible to obtain from SAR imagery. The present paper reports on measurements of ocean surface currents based on imaging of the nearshore regions of the Monterey Bay using an interferometric SAR. The method is a modification of the conventional SAR which employs two spatially separated antennas. This modification allows one to construct an interferogram from the two complex images obtained by each antenna, which provides direct mapping of the observed surface velocities. -from Authors