On the determination of characteristics of the interior ocean dynamics from radar signatures of internal solitary waves

Discusses two different methods of inferring characteristics of the interior ocean dynamics from radar signatures of internal solitary waves visible on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The first one consists in the recognition and the interpretation of sea surface patterns of internal solitary waves, the second one in the analysis of the modulation depth of the normalized radar cross section (NRCS) associated with internal solitary waves. To this purpose the authors consider a data set composed of SAR and in situ measurements carried out from 1991 to 1997 in the region of the Strait of Messina and numerical simulations performed by using a radar imaging model. The recognition and the interpretation of sea surface patterns of internal solitary waves in the Strait of Messina is used to study characteristics of the density distribution in the area. In order to infer parameters of the interior ocean dynamics by analyzing the modulation depth of the NRCS associated with internal solitary waves, several numerical simulations are carried out by using a radar imaging model. These simulations are performed by assuming different wind conditions and internal wave parameters. It is shown that an accurate knowledge of wind conditions is crucial for deriving internal wave parameters and hence parameters of the interior ocean dynamics