MULTIFREQUENCY SAR IMAGES OF SHIP-GENERATED INTERNAL WAVES

During the joint U.K./U.S.A. experiment conducted in the Loch Linnhe, Scotland, U.K., in 1989, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) multifreq uency airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) was deployed to investig ate the relation between the SAR images and ship-generated internal wa ves. One of the intriguing results, consistent throughout the experime nt, was the striking difference in phase (position) between the images of internal wave wakes in the P-band (similar or equal to 68 cm) wave length and those in L-band (similar or equal to 24 cm) and C-band (sim ilar or equal to 6 cm) wavelengths. An explanation for this difference is found in the sensitivity of different radar wavelengths to oceanic surface waves in different ranges of wavelengths, that are perturbed by varying surface currents by different amounts and at different posi tions, depending on the wavelength of surface waves.