Small scale properties of the radar backscatter from the sea surface at off nadir angles

Analyses coherent radar backscatter data from the sea surface at C-band and VV polarization, sampled at 300 Hz. The aim is to understand their usefulness in the investigation of the sea surface properties. The variability of the backscatter intensity I_bk at frequencies close to the Bragg frequency suggested a Bragg-like mechanism in the formation of the radar backscatter from patches of Bragg waves randomly distributed in the radar footprint. This led us to consider that both I _bk and the associated Doppler frequency f_d have to be computed over time intervals of O(0.1) s, the periodicity of the Bragg waves at C-band and 45 degree of incidence. Shorter time intervals would produce unrealistic estimates. This sets the lowest limit of data sampling for further research