This article is cited in 45 papers

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Physical mechanisms of aerospace radar imaging of the ocean

M. G. Bulatov^a, Yu. A. Kravtsov^ab, O. Yu. Lavrova^a, K. Ts. Litovchenko^a, M. I. Mityagina^a, M. D. Raev^a, K. D. Sabinin^ac, Yu. G. Trokhimovskii^a, A. N. Churyumov^a, I. V. Shugan<sup>d

a</sup> Space Research Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences
^b Center of Space Research., Polish Akademy of Sciences, 00716 Warsaw, Poland
^c N. N. Andreyev Acoustics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences
^d Institute of General Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences

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.

PACS: 84.40.Ba, 92.10.Hm, 93.85.+q

Received: October 10, 2001
Revised: April 10, 2002

DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0173.200301d.0069

 English version: Physics–Uspekhi, 2003, 46:1, 63–79

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