DEPENDENCE OF THE MICROWAVE RADAR CROSS-SECTION ON OCEAN SURFACE VARIABLES - COMPARISON OF MEASUREMENTS AND THEORY USING DATA FROM THE FRONTAL AIR-SEA INTERACTION EXPERIMENT

Measurements across an ocean front demonstrated that the vertical polarization (V-pol) and horizontal polarization (H-pol) radar cross section were more strongly dependent on wind stress than on wind magnitude. In situations where the Bragg scattering theory does not agree with the measured radar cross section (magnitude and angle dependence), revisions are hypothesized and evaluated. For example, the V-pol theory worked well in most cases studied, while the H-pol theory was usually too low by about a factor of 2 at incidence angles of 50° and 60°. -from Author