SARCURE: Synthetic Aperture Radar for ocean CUrrent feature Retrievals and surface velocity Estimates
To retrieve high resolution quantitative information of ocean surface currents, using Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery.
Objectives
The overall aim is to create new methodologies to process and unambiguously quantify and interpret synthetic aperture radar (SAR) signals and their transformation to ocean current feature determination and surface current estimates.
The specific objectives are:
- To further develop the Radar Imaging Model (RIM) according to sea surface slope and curvature transformations in the presence of varying near surface wind, wave-surface current interaction, wave breaking and natural film.
- To compare and validate the RIM with the Doppler signal method.
- To merge the Doppler signal method and the RIM into an integrated Doppler and RIM (DOPRIM) tool.
- To develop, test and validate an inverse method that will provide quantitative estimates of current features expressed in SAR images.
Project Summary
The goal of the project is to retrieve high resolution quantitative information of ocean surface currents, using Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery. The work is split into three modules:
Module 1: Further develop and validate the Radar Imaging Model (RIM)
Objectives: To best identify the dominant scales that contribute to SAR Backscatter mean and variations and advance and validate the RIM for simulation and quantitative estimates of surface current features in consistence with realistic near surface wind and wave field and their influence on mean square slope and curvature statistics.
Module 2: Combine and validate the Doppler method and the RIM
Objectives: Examine and validate the internal agreement between the SAR measured Doppler shift corresponding to the line-of-sight velocity projected on the mean surface, UD , across current features and the corresponding simulated gradients of surface current derived from RIM.
Module 3: Inverse modelling of SAR images to estimates of surface current
Objectives: Develop, test and validate an inverse method for estimates of surface current from observed SAR backscatter anomalies and Doppler frequency shift signal.
