Sea Surface Roughness Science Team Accomplishments Second Quarter 2005

1. Sea Surface Roughness Science Team Accomplishments Second Quarter 2005

2. Sea SurfaceRoughness (SSR) Science Team FY 2005 Quarter 2 Accomplishments Subtask 1 Securing SAR data access for research and operations

3. Briefing Given to NOAA Observing Systems Council (NOSC) Summary • NOAA augmentation of the NASA InSAR initiative is a rare opportunity to obtain large quantities of SAR data at a small fraction of the cost of a dedicated NOAA satellite or commercial purchase. • These data provide unique satellite environmental information (e.g., sub-km winds, hazard information such as all-weather high-resolution ice, flood mapping under forest canopy or under cloudy conditions, volcanic monitoring). • To participate requires funding to start in FY07/08. A briefing was given at the March 4, 2005 meeting of the NOSC on “NOAA Augmentation of NASA’s InSAR Mission” outlining a PPBES FY 2007/08 proposal for NOAA participation in the NASA Interferometric SAR mission.

4. NASA NASA NASA NASA NASA NOAA NOAA NOAA NOAA NOAA’s Augmentation of NASA’s InSAR Mission OPTION 0 OPTION 3 OPTION 2 OPTION 1 NOAA’s Spacecraft Cost* $0 $33 Million $149 Million $195 Million NOAA’s Res/Dev/Ops Cost* $0 $41 Million $ 66 Million $ 68 Million * FY 2004 Dollars Cost per Image Build vs. PurchaseN/A $66/ $1,000 $86/ $1,025 $60/ $1,050 • 10 Minutes (out of 100) of observations per orbit • Single frequency (L band) • Interfermetric • Land deformation observations with vertical resolution of 8 mm • Increase observational time to 50 minutes • Utilize NPOESS Safety • Net for fast delivery • Add 500 km ScanSAR • mode at 100 m res. • Allows observations of the cyrosphere and oceans • Allows data to be used operationally • Adds another band • at higher frequency • Adds twice the information about the cyrosphere, oceans, and land • Adds 4 possible polarization combinations • Adds 4 times the information about the cyrosphere, oceans, and land • Adds information about the biosphere NOAA Gets Nothing Desirability of Options for NOAA

5. Sea Surface Roughness (SSR) Science Team FY 2005 Quarter 2 Accomplishments Subtask 2 SAR product research

6. A paper on “Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging of Axial Convergence Fronts in Cook Inlet Alaska” by Xiaofeng Li, Chunyan Li, William Pichel, Pablo Clemente-Colon, and Karen Friedman was conditionally accepted by IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering

7. Invited Presentation to CIOSS Ocean Vector Wind Workshop in Miami - February 2005 “Very High-Resolution Vector Wind Estimation using Synthetic Aperture Radar” • Summary • Accurate very high-resolution winds can be produced from SAR • imagery, although wind directions are problematic. • SAR winds have been produced for Alaska waters during the past five years in near-real time • SAR wind images show a wide variety of wind phenomena • of interest to mariners and aviators.

8. CIOSS Ocean Vector Wind Workshop in Miami - February 2005

9. Sea Surface Roughness (SSR) Science Team FY 2005 Quarter 2 Accomplishments Subtask 3 SAR applications demonstrations and user outreach/education

10. GhostNet NOAA P3 Flight – March-April 2005 20 deg 21 deg 21 deg 22 deg GhostNet Flight No. 1 suggested search patterns on background of contoured 14-day GOES composite SST field. Blue dots are areas of high SST gradient. Red lines are areas of convergence seen in synthetic aperture radar imagery ORA is supporting the NOAA P3 GhostNet flights out of Honolulu to the North Pacific Subtropical convergence zone. Satellite data are analyzed to determine areas of convergence that are then surveyed with aircraft instruments and by visual observation to locate marine debris including derelict nets.

11. Synthetic Aperture Radar Marine User’s Manual Published The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Marine User’s Manual was published in March 2005by the Government Printing Office. This hard-cover, 464-page manual, edited by Christopher Jackson and John Apel, was developed under the sponsorship of the NOAA/NESDIS/Office of Research and Applications. The intended audience is current and future users of SAR data and derived coastal, ocean, and ice products. The manual consists of twenty peer-reviewed chapters written by an international group of authors from Europe, Canada, and the U.S. There are three overview chapters on the principles of SAR and its use for ocean and sea ice applications. The overview is followed by nine chapters on ocean applications, five chapters on atmospheric applications, and three chapters on sea-ice applications. Office of Research and Applications personnel provided lead authorship on four of the chapters: Upwelling (Pablo Clemente-Colón), Ship and Wake Detection (William Pichel), Mesoscale Storm Systems (Karen Friedman), and Atmospheric Vortex Streets and Gravity Waves (Xiaofeng Li). The manual is dedicated to the memory of John R. Apel who first proposed the creation of this manual and started its development, but passed away before its completion. John was one of the pioneers in NOAA of the use of SAR for investigating the physics of the sea.

12. Significance SAR data which show so many oceanic phenomena and the surface manifestation of so many atmospheric boundary layer phenomena are difficult to interpret, especially for inexperienced users. The objective of the manual is: “to lay out, for a wide range of users, the types of information that may be obtained from SAR images of the ocean, and methods of analyzing the imagery. It is intended for non-expert but scientifically literate workers who wish to use synthetic aperture data in their studies but who do not quite know what to make of the data.” This manual will help users of NOAA and National Ice Center SAR products to better understand and use the products we produce. These products include (1) ice analyses and forecasts for safety of vessels at sea and on the Great Lakes, (2) high-resolution coastal winds for safety of coastal ocean transportation and aviation, and (3) vessel positions for fisheries management, monitoring, and enforcement.

13. Sea Surface Roughness (SSR) Science Team FY 2005 Quarter 2 Accomplishments Subtask 4 Operational SAR ocean products system development

14. Hurricane Ivan winds from SAR – CMOD5 algorithm September 10, 2004 23:07 UTC The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (JHU/APL) has implemented the CMOD5 wind algorithm into the SAR wind system for testing during this coming hurricane season at the Univ. of Miami Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing (CSTARS) satellite reception facility.