Title: Sea Spikes at Moderate to NearGrazing Incidence Angles
1Sea Spikes at Moderate to Near-Grazing Incidence
Angles
- Mary R. Keller
- Bruce L. Gotwols
- Rick D. Chapman
- All at
- Johns Hopkins University
- Applied Physics Laboratory
2Talk Outline
- Review of data sources, past research
- Generalized Sea Spike Definition
- Ground Truth video data for calibration, wave
properties at time of spike - Summary of dependence of sea spike density on
winds, incidence, polarization - Conclusions Not all spikes are created equal
3Data Sources (675 GB Total)
Nordsee Tower 1990 (ONR)
RV FLIP 1995 (OSD)
Duck, NC Pier 1996 (OSD)
4Previous Work at Moderate Incidence Angles
From Jessup et al., 1991
5Generalized Spike Definition
1. Power must exceed mean over a time equal to
or greater than one second. 2. Bandwidth must
peak within one second of beginning of spike in
mean power.
Keller, Plant and Valenzuela, 1986
6Spike Time Duration HH pol
7Spike Time Duration VV pol
8Ground Truth with Video Data
VIDEO
RADAR
LADAS
Mooring Buoy
Power (arb. units)
LADAS
Mooring Buoy
Incidence in degrees
9Ground Truthing with Video Waves
Steep Wave
Dihedral
Crossing waves
10Wind Dependence of Spike Density
Wind 9.8 m/s from -3Âş (rel.)
HH ? solid
VV ? dashed
53.8Âş
64.3Âş
74.9Âş
Wind 6.5 m/s from 1Âş (rel.)
11Polarization Dependence of Spike Density
COPE
MISE
FPN
Wind 9.8 m/s from -3Âş (rel.)
Wind 5.6 m/s from 56.7Âş (avg.)
Wind 7.8 m/s from 30.2Âş (rel.)
HH ? solid
VV ? dashed
12 Conclusions
- Have developed a definition of sea spike
applicable to a broad range of microwave and
ocean conditions. - 80 to 85 of the spikes, as defined, are
time-coincident with a surface of high curvature
- can be from a sharp wave front or crest, or
from the interaction of two or more steep waves. - These spikes are more frequent as the wind speed
increases, but also become more directional, i.e.
are more likely to be seen when looking upwind at
high winds as opposed to cross- and down-wind,
but are more uniformly distributed with azimuth
as the wind speed drops. - The number of spikes is about comparable for VV
and HH polarizations at mid-incidence angles, as
Jessup et al. found. - As the incidence angle increases, the VV-pol
spikes (as defined) become more common than
HH-pol spikes, with the reverse true as the
incidence angle decreases. - These are not all the spikes known to occur!
Averaging wipes out the spikes due to Rayleigh
fading, while only 1/3 of spikes of one second or
longer in time have accompanying bandwidth peaks.
Thus, different classes of spikes have different
generating mechanisms these spikes are probably
caused by surfaces of steep curvature focusing
the energy back into the antenna.
13 Future Work
- Extend incidence angle range through full
analysis of MISE data. - Work toward developing a model relating wave
crests and feature-generated backscatter - Apply spiking definition to upcoming field data.