Radar imaging of strain rate

A high resolution (1.5 m), narrow beamwidth (1/spl deg/), dual polarisation and multi-frequency radar was positioned on a clifftop, at Portland on the south coast of England. The data presented, was measured at I-band (9.75 GHz), with vertical and horizontal polarisations on alternate pulses. The radar was approximately 60 m above sea level, and the range to the centre of the swath was 2.5 km, thus there was a grazing angle of 1-2/spl deg/. The radar was left staring in one direction for 2-3 days and integrated data was collected continuously over this period. The period of integration was slightly more than one second. Several environmental buoys were fielded that collected ocean current and wind speed data, as well as a number of other parameters. The depth of the sea was between 35-40 m and the wind speed dropped gradually, from 10 m/s to 5 m/s, during the period of observation.