RADARSAT application in ocean wind measurements

Canada´s coastal waters include three oceans and extensive large inland lakes adjacent to complex terrain and coastlines. The paucity of marine weather observations, whether in situ or otherwise remotely sensed, at the coast and in adjacent offshore regions decreases the accuracy of meteorological predictions including synoptic-scale and mesoscale features critical to marine forecasts. SAR (synthetic aperture radar) observations from RADARSAT-1, RADARSAT-2 and other SAR satellites are able to capture many details that are not otherwise available from coastal in situ observations, or other remotely sensed data from scatterometers, or from weather forecast models. Reliable, timely, plentiful, high- resolution, accurate marine winds are needed to improve operational marine weather forecasts. SAR- derived winds over the water provide a potential solution to this problem. This presentation will describe the Canadian National SAR Winds Project (NSWP). The NSWP initiative is a prototype pre- operational project focusing on Canadian coastal waters and major inland lakes. We demonstrate the accuracy of SAR-based winds retrieval system in operational marine forecasting throughout Canada to identifying mesoscale and synoptic-scale features, and in providing detailed wind patterns in coastal areas.