Wave period and direction estimation in shallow water using airborne along-track interferometric synthetic aperture radar

Motion induced by waves on the ocean surface must be removed from measurements of surface velocity made by along-track interferometric synthetic aperture radar (ATI-SAR) in order to estimate surface currents. We focus on the estimation of wave parameters in intermediate to shallow water depths in a challenging bathymetric environment at the mouth of the Columbia River. We compare the ATI-SAR wave parameter measurements with in situ measurements made by a wave buoy offshore of the mouth. For all but two cases, we find that the estimated wave direction and wave period differs by less than 50° and 1.25 s respectively from the buoy measurement.