1. Use of Synthetic Aperture Radar in Finescale Surface Analysis of Synoptic-Scale Fronts at Sea.
- Author
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Young, G. S., Sikora, T. N., and Winstead, N. S.
- Subjects
SYNTHETIC aperture radar ,METEOROLOGICAL instruments ,METEOROLOGY ,FRONTS (Meteorology) ,WEATHER - Abstract
The viability of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) as a tool for finescale marine meteorological surface analyses of synoptic-scale fronts is demonstrated. In particular, it is shown that SAR can reveal the presence of, and the mesoscale and microscale substructures associated with, synoptic-scale cold fronts, warm fronts, occluded fronts, and secluded fronts. The basis for these findings is the analysis of some 6000 RADARSAT-1 SAR images from the Gulf of Alaska and from off the east coast of North America. This analysis yielded 158 cases of well-defined frontal signatures: 22 warm fronts, 37 cold fronts, 3 stationary fronts, 32 occluded fronts, and 64 secluded fronts. The potential synergies between SAR and a range of other data sources are discussed for representative fronts of each type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005
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