MORSE: Mesoscale Ocean Radar Signature Experiments

Describes work performed within the MORSE project as part of the EC MAST-III programme. Oceanic internal wave mechanisms and effects are being studied by the Institut für Meereskunde and will be the basis for analysis of SAR images at ENSTB. The understanding of radar signatures requires the development by UCL of a laboratory W-band SAR using the FMCW technique. Oxford Computer Services Ltd. will develop three software packages involving ocean parameter extraction, ocean surface modelling and the radar signature “inversion” problem. These packages are aimed at providing tools for those in the marine education, coastal engineering, marine technical services and oceanographic sciences. The ultra high resolution radar is to be used in a set of experiments in LEGI, in Grenoble, France, first in a flume, and then in a wave tank in which scaled versions of particular internal wave phenomena can be set-up under laboratory conditions. This paper focusses on the development of this radar