Observing Multimodal Ocean Wave Systems by a Multiscale Analysis of Polarimetric SAR Imagery

A new methodology is here presented for the assessment of deep water multimodal ocean wave systems using polarimetric Radarsat-2 imagery. To separate wave systems in multimodal cases and evaluate their statistics individually, the new approach uses a multiscale processing scheme together with the mean square slope statistics theory of ocean waves, which has been originally developed from optical and radar altimetry sensors. Moreover, it was possible to classify the wave systems as wind driven or “pure” swell. The results show a reasonable agreement with data by a nearby metocean buoy. More C-band polarimetric SAR imagery is required to fully validate the methodology with well collocated wave buoys. We reckon that this new approach, being a fast and independent satellite algorithm to assess multimodal ocean wave systems, could contribute to several coastal/oceanic engineering applications and monitoring systems.