Radar signal retrodiffusion by water surface

To prepare the future altimetry space missions at Ka band, a measurement campaign has been done with ONERA BUSARD platform and DRIVE radar. Particularity of the campaign was the use of steep incident angles, in Ka band, with a SAR instrument. Area of interest was the Camargue region in south of France. Three flights were planned on dry, wet and sea surfaces. In this paper, we describe the context of the campaign, and sensor´s configuration that has been used. We then present the areas that have been measured and expose an example of aircraft´s trajectory. Finally, we present some results as SAR images that have been acquired and some extracted backscattering coefficient profiles, figured as a function of the incident angle. Nadir backscattered levels are close to the literature values, and specular behavior is found on pond surfaces while more diffuse returns are observed over sea surfaces.