Physical mechanisms of aerospace radar imaging of the ocean

Abstract

Physical mechanisms of the radar imaging of the ocean surface are reviewed. The resonant and nonresonant mechanisms of microwave radiation scattering from the ocean surface are considered, analyzed, and compared based on 20 years of the authors' own theoretical and experimental work, and publications by other research teams. The experimental facts that cannot be explained by resonant scattering models are analyzed in detail, and in this connection the significant contribution of mesoscale breaking waves to scattering at grazing angles is justified. The characteristic features and most probable mechanisms of radar imaging of various mesoscale phenomena deep in the ocean and in the atmosphere are considered.