FINE-SCALE MEASUREMENTS OF MICROWAVE BACKSCATTER FROM THE OCEAN SURFACE

WE REQUEST FUNDS TO SUPPORT RESEARCH AIMED AT IMPROVING THE SPATIAL RESOLUTION OF RADARS ON OCEAN TOWERS IN THIS PROPOSAL. SPECIFICALLY, WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP FOCUSED PHSED-ARRAY CONCEPTS THAT WILL BE APPLICABLE TO FUTURE TOWER EXPERIMENTS. WE SHOW THAT ANTENNA ARRAYS CAN ACHIEVE FOOTPRINTS AREAS SMALLER THAN 1M2. THE DATA WILL BE COLLECTED AND STORED IN SUCH A MANNER THAT THE FOOTPRINT SIZE AND POSITION ON THE OCEAN SURFACE CAN BE VARIED FOR EACH INSTANT OF TIME. BASIC INFORMATION ON THE TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL DECORRELATION OF SCATTERED MICROWAVE FIELDS CAN THEREFORE BE MEASURED BY SUCH A SYSTEM. IN ADDITION, RADIATION PATTERNS FROM THE PHASED ARRAYS CAN BE FOCUSED TO SPECIFIC LOCATIONS ON THE OCEAN SURFACE AFTER THE SCATTERING MEASUREMENTS HAVE BEEN MADE. THIS WILL ALLOW THE SYSTEM TO "FREEZE" THE OCEAN SURFCE BY PROCESSING DATA OBTAINED SIMULTANEOUSLY FROM EACH ANTENNA ELEMENT OR SIMULATE A SAR PIXEL BY PROCESSING DELAYED RESPONSES FROM THE ANTENNA ELEMENTS.