Sea surface and ship observation with MEMPHIS

Numerous scenes have been measured with the mmW radar MEMPHIS of FGAN-FHP in SAR geometry. During the last two years special emphasis has been put on the sea surface, inland water, and ships. This research was mainly aimed to investigate the ability of SAR imaging of natural and man-made disturbances of the water surface also at mm-wave radar bands. As for classical wavelengths, SAR imaging of the sea surface can be harnessed without a full understanding of the phenomena involved, but an adequate understanding is required for oceanographic purposes or for the utilization of responses of ships, ship traces etc. For the measurements used, the environmental data like wind speed, wave height and wind direction are available so the interdependence of scattering at mmW frequencies with these parameters can be assessed. The observations discussed give experimental data which are used to validate empirical models and allow to emphasize the differences and similarities between scattering at mm-waves and traditional radar bands employed for SAR. In addition SAR data on ships and their traces are available. The latter is used to point out the specific features of mmw-radar in a maritime environment