Estimates of ocean wave heights and attenuation in sea ice using the SAR wave mode on Sentinel-1A

Type Article
Date 2015-04
Language English
Author(s) Ardhuin FabriceORCID1, 2, Collard Fabrice3, Chapron BertrandORCID1, Girard-Ardhuin FannyORCID1, Guitton Gilles3, Mouche AlexisORCID1, Stopa Justin1
Affiliation(s) 1 : IFREMER, Lab Oceanog Spatiale, Brest, France.
2 : UBO, IFREMER, Lab Phys Oceans, CNRS,IRD,UMR 6523, Brest, France.
3 : OceanDataLab, Plouzane, France.
Source Geophysical Research Letters (0094-8276) (Amer Geophysical Union), 2015-04 , Vol. 42 , N. 7 , P. 2317-2325
DOI 10.1002/2014GL062940
WOS© Times Cited 50
Keyword(s) ocean waves, SAR, sea ice
Abstract Swell evolution from the open ocean into sea ice is poorly understood, in particular the amplitude attenuation expected from scattering and dissipation. New synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data from Sentinel-1A wave mode reveal intriguing patterns of bright oscillating lines shaped like instant noodles. We investigate cases in which the oscillations are in the azimuth direction, around a straight line in the range direction. This observation is interpreted as the distortion by the SAR processing of crests from a first swell, due to the presence of a second swell. Since deviations from a straight line should be proportional to the orbital velocity toward the satellite, swell height can be estimated, from 1.5 to 5 m in the present case. The evolution of this 13 s period swell across the ice pack is consistent with an exponential attenuation on a length scale of 200 km.
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Ardhuin Fabrice, Collard Fabrice, Chapron Bertrand, Girard-Ardhuin Fanny, Guitton Gilles, Mouche Alexis, Stopa Justin (2015). Estimates of ocean wave heights and attenuation in sea ice using the SAR wave mode on Sentinel-1A. Geophysical Research Letters, 42(7), 2317-2325. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL062940 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00256/36718/