Sea Fetch Observed by Synthetic Aperture Radar

Li, Xiaofeng; Zheng, Weizhong; Yang, Xiaofeng; Pietrafesa, Leonard J.

doi:10.1109/tgrs.2016.2605670

i

Sea Fetch Observed by Synthetic Aperture Radar

2017
By Li, Xiaofeng ; Zheng, Weizhong ; Yang, Xiaofeng ; ...

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Journal Title:

IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
Personal Author:

Li, Xiaofeng ; Zheng, Weizhong ; Yang, Xiaofeng ; Pietrafesa, Leonard J.
NOAA Program & Office:

NESDIS (National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service) ; NWS (National Weather Service) ; EMC (Environmental Modelling Center)
Description:

Two satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) observations of the fetch in the Bohai Sea of China are presented. The sea surface winds derived from SAR data indicated a high wind of 15-16 m/s that occurred in the fetch zone. The winds are shown to have immediate direct mechanical forcing impacts on the significant wave heights (Hs) of ocean surface gravity waves. Buoy measurements and numerical wave modeling results show that the Hs increased to a maximum of 3.5 m in the semienclosed sea, 3 h after the passage of the fetch winds, and the high Hs in the sea was sustained for a total of 6 h. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model implemented in our modeling simulation captured the wind field responsible for the evolution of the fetch event. The model-simulated surface horizontal winds agree with the SAR-derived winds. In addition, the vertical wind distribution reveals that the fetch wind field reached the 800 hPa level, and the event lasted less than one day. This study demonstrates the synergy of using SAR imagery and the WRF model as effective tools to investigate the lateral and vertical structures of coastal wind.
Keywords:

Oceanography Remote Sensing Remote Sensing
Source:

IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 55(1), 272-279
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1109/tgrs.2016.2605670
ISSN:

0196-2892 ; 1558-0644
Format:

PDF
Publisher:

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Document Type:

Journal Article
Rights Information:

Accepted Manuscript
Compliance:

Submitted
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha-512:16503f5f08743bb2b007240056fca03a03806246c588d61b08fbcd2d806bcc8467ea7f908889c27c10f8310fcee2317036e2ce577ec8f717a81d37123317387f
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/70967/noaa_70967_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 2.21 MB ]

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