RECOVERING THE MESOSCALE FIELD OF THE OCEAN LEVEL USING SPACE RADAR PHASOMETRY TECHNIQUES

This article examines the problem of radar measurement (recovery) of t he mesoscale field of the ocean surface level in the presence of small -scale wind-generated waves. Out of a large number of possible methods , only 'panoramic radio altimetry' methods using side-looking space ra dars are examined. It is shown that this problem can be solved using a dual-frequency, single-antenna phasometer. The paper studies the corr elation coefficient of signals received by dual-antenna (single-freque ncy) phasometers and by dual-frequency phasometers, random and systema tic error components and the problem of ambiguous readings. It present s data which can be used to estimate the necessary spectral bandwidth of an emitted signal and the system's power potential from its operati onal parameters, the limiting sensitivity, the size of a spot for aver aging and the width of the survey region on the surface.