An improved frequency shift method is proposed to remove the flat earth phase in ATI-SAR ocean surface motion detection in this study. First, two conventional flat earth effect removal methods (i.e., the frequency shift method and the orbital parameter method) are introduced and compared. Then, two improvements to frequency shift method are suggested. In the first improvement, the phase diagram is divided into several sub-blocks to calculate the phase fringe frequency. In the second improvement, a function between the phase of land regions and position is fitted to correct the residual flat earth phase based on the phase of the land regions that tend toward zero in an along-track interferogram. It is found that the improved frequency shift method is greatly improved; and it agrees well with the orbital parameter method, and achieves similar accuracy.

In this note, we present the first Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) typhoon image acquired in the northwest Pacific on October 4, 2014. The eye shape and sea surface wind patterns associated with Typhoon Phanfone are clearly shown in the high-quality SAR image. SAR winds retrieval procedure was given but the actual wind estimates will only be available after the European Space Agency (ESA) releases the official calibration coefficients in order to accurately derive the SAR-measured normalized radar cross section. This study demonstrates the advantage of Sentinel-1 SAR with regards to imaging fine scale typhoon patterns on the sea surface beneath storm clouds. This paper also advocates the use of Sentinel-1 SAR data that is made freely and openly available worldwide for the first time in civilian SAR history.

Imaging mechanism of underwater topography by SAR and a underwater topography SAR detection model built on the theory of underwater topography detection with SAR image presented by Yuan Yeli are used to detect the underwater topography of Shuangzi Reefs in the Nansha Islands with three scenes of SAR images acquired in different time.Detection results of three SAR images are compared with the chart topography and the detection errors are analyzed.Underwater topography detection experiments of Shuangzi Reefs show that the detection model is practicable.The detection results indicate that SAR images acquired in different time also can be used to detect the underwater topography, and the detection results are affected by the ocean conditions in the SAR acquiring time.

underwater topography is one of oceanic features detected by Synthetic Aperture Radar. Underwater topography SAR imaging mechanism shows that tidal current is the important factor for underwater topography SAR imaging. Thus under the same wind field condition, SAR images for the same area acquired at different time include different information of the underwater topography. To utilize synchronously SAR images acquired at different time for the underwater topography SAR detection and improve the precision of detection, based on the detection model of underwater topography with single SAR image and the periodicity of tidal current, a detection model of underwater topography with a series of SAR images acquired at different time is developed by combing with tide and tidal current numerical simulation. To testify the feasibility of the presented model, Taiwan Shoal located at the south outlet of Taiwan Strait is selected as study area and three SAR images are used in the underwater topography detection. The detection results are compared with the field observation data of water depth carried out by R/V Dongfanghong 2, and the errors of the detection are compared with those of the single SAR image. All comparisons show that the detection model presented in the paper improves the precision of underwater topography SAR detection, and the presented model is feasible.

A preliminary account of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging mechanisms of oceanic bottom topographic features and a description of the principles of the information extracted from SAR images and the processing and the analysis technology of SAR images are made.Some results were obtained from researching shallow topography and its bathymetric features of the regions of offshore in the east Australia Sea by ERS-1 SAR images.The preliminary research indicates that these features covered with SAR have never been reported before and some results of them are yielded for the first time in Australia.This information is very valuable in a great number of applications to oceanic engineering, shipping navigation, marine fishery and environment, as well as oceanographic research and development.The paper comes to the conclusion that SAR remote sensing of oceanography and its applications are of great potential.

We aim to directly invert wave parameters by using the data of a compact polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (CP SAR) and validate the effectiveness of ocean wave parameter retrieval from the circular transmit/linear receive mode and π/4 compact polarimetric mode. Relevant data from the RADARSAT-2 fully polarimetric SAR on the C-band were used to obtain the compact polarimetric SAR images, and a polarimetric SAR wave retrieval algorithm was used to verify the sea surface wave measurements. Using the data and algorithm, there is no need to estimate complex hydrodynamic modulation transfer functions, even at large radar incidence angles. First, the radar backscattering cross-sections and backscattering cross-section of the radar linearly polarized with any polarization orientation angle were calculated in the two compact polarimetric SAR modes. Then, the wave slopes along the azimuth direction and the range direction were calculated directly using CP SAR data. Finally, we obtained the slope spectrum of the wave from the estimated wave slopes along azimuth and range directions. The wave parameters extracted from the synthetic wave slope spectrum were compared with those obtained from buoy observations of the National Data Buoy Center, verifying a suitable agreement.

Interaction between current and underwater bottom topography leads to roughness of the sea surface, which in turn yields variation of the radar scattering echo.By using the continuity equation and weak hydrodynamic interaction theory in the relaxation time approximation, the spatial variation of the radar scattering cross-section has been proved as proportional to the gradient of current velocity.The current direction is first determined by using two-dimensional (2-D) correlation of spatial variation of backscattering measured by the SAR imagery, as the priori knowledge of the current direction is not available.The inverse algorithm to successively derive 2-D underwater bottom topography from the SAR imagery is developed.As an application, the SAR SIR-C image over the sea area of Hong Kong, China is studied.

A space-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR), a high frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR), and a ship automatic identification system (AIS) are the main remote sensors for vessel monitoring in a wide range. These three sensors have their own advantages and weaknesses, and they can complement each other in some situations. So it would improve the capability of vessel target detection to use multiple sensors including SAR, HFSWR, and AIS to identify non-cooperative vessel targets from the fusion results. During the fusion process of multiple sensors' detection results, point association is one of the key steps, and it can affect the accuracy of the data fusion and the efficiency of a non-cooperative target's recognition. This study investigated the point association analyses of vessel target detection under different conditions: spaceborne SAR paired with AIS, as well as HFSWR, paired with AIS, and the characteristics of the SAR and the HFSWR and their capability of vessel target detection. Then a point association method of multiple sensors was proposed. Finally, the thresholds selection of key parameters in the points association (including range threshold, radial velocity threshold, and azimuth threshold) were investigated, and their influences on final association results were analyzed.

Rain cells or convective rain, the dominant form of rain in the tropics and subtropics, can be easy detected by satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images with high horizontal resolution. The footprints of rain cells on SAR images are caused by the scattering and attenuation of the rain drops, as well as the downward airflow. In this study, we extract sea surface wind field and its structure caused by rain cells by using a RADARSAT-2 SAR image with a spatial resolution of 100 m for case study. We extract the sea surface wind speeds from SAR image by using CMOD4 geophysical model function with outside wind directions of NCEP final operational global analysis data, Advance Scatterometer (ASCAT) onboard European MetOp-A satellite and microwave scatterometer onboard Chinese HY-2 satellite, respectively. The root-mean-square errors (RMSE) of these SAR wind speeds, validated against NCEP, ASCAT and HY-2, are 1.48 m/s, 1.64 m/s and 2.14 m/s, respectively. Circular signature patterns with brighter on one side and darker on the opposite side on SAR image are interpreted as the sea surface wind speed (or sea surface roughness) variety caused by downdraft associated with rain cells. The wind speeds taken from the transect profile which superposes to the wind ambient vectors and goes through the center of the circular footprint of rain cell can be fitted as a cosine or sine curve in high linear correlation with the values of no less than 0.80. The background wind speed, the wind speed caused by rain cell and the diameter of footprint of the rain cell with kilometers or tens of kilometers can be acquired by fitting curve. Eight cases interpreted and analyzed in this study all show the same conclusion.

Polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) oil spill detection parameters conformity coefficient (μ), Muller matrix parameters (|C|, B₀), the eigenvalues of simplified coherency matrix (λ_nos) and the influence of SAR observing parameters, ocean environment and noise level are investigated. Radarsat-2 data are used to make systematic analysis of polarimetric parameters for different incidences, wind speeds, noise levels and the ocean phenomena (oil slick and look likes). The influence of the SAR observing parameters, the ocean environment and the noise level on the typical polarimetric SAR parameter conformity coefficient has been analyzed. The results indicate that conformity coefficient cannot be simply used for oil spill detection, which represents the image signal to the noise level to some extent. When the signals are below the noise level for the oil slick and the look likes, the conformity coefficients are negative; while the signals above the noise level corresponds to positive conformity coefficients. For dark patches (low wind and biogenic slick) with the signal below the noise, polarization features such as conformity coefficient cannot separate them with oil slick. For the signal above the noise, the oil slick, the look likes (low wind and biogenic slick) and clean sea all have positive conformity coefficients, among which, the oil slick has the smallest conformity coefficient, the look likes the second, and the clean sea the largest value. For polarimetric SAR data oil spill detection, the noise plays a significant role. So the polarimetric SAR data oil spill detection should be carried out on the basis of noise consideration.