Wind dependence of radar sea return

Abstract

Recently significant progress has been made in modeling sea return by means of a composite surface theory. All of the four-frequency radar sea return data obtained by the Naval Research Laboratory have been incorporated into this theory to provide a more accurate determination of the magnitude of sea return for vertical polarization. A value of the power law for the wave number spectrum of the sea close to that of −3.75 previously found by Kinsman (1965) was determined from the radar data. By means of this spectrum, equations have been developed that model vertically polarized sea return as a function of wind velocity and direction, radar wavelength, and depression angle. A power law dependence of sea return with wind velocity is introduced that is in agreement with the data in many cases.