Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa, 2009. Issue.6. Vol.1. P. 42-57
Perspectives of development of space radar methods for research of
oceanic phenomena
С.В. Переслегин
, А.Ю. Иванов
, З.А. Халиков
Институт океанологии им. П.П. Ширшова РАН, Москва, 117997, Нахимовский проспект, 36
Operational monitoring of the ocean in mesoscale and even monitoring of ocean fields supposes a use of a
spaceborne radar system with small revisit time and image acquisitions either in global scale or only for given
ocean regions. The objects of operational monitoring in the ocean, such as wind waves, ocean currents and sea level
anomalies, are considered to require a new spaceborne system based on a low cost basis and up-to-date
technologies. The examples of radar images of different oceanic phenomena formed in the field of reflected signal
intensity, current velocity and ocean level fields by existing altimeters and SARs are presented and discussed. The
outputs of recently started foreign and national projects on this matter are also considered and evaluated. The given
project, which uses an approach based on the bistatic (two-position) interferometric SAR (BiSAR), is proposed and
considered. The method is based on the radar illumination of the ocean surface from other satellite. The parameters
of an optimum system are presented, for example, the dependences of fluctuation velocity sensitivity from size of
the area and wind speed, i.e. the obstacle via large wind waves. The full using of space resolution causes to form
true large waves images. Averaging of different-phase signal on the extended areas allows forming the images of
oceanic phenomena via observations the ocean level or current velocity fields.
Keywords: large wind waves, seismic waves, current velocity field, ocean level field, quasi-mirror bistatic scattering, bistatic interferometric SAR (BiSAR)
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