Detection of Internal Solitary Waves with Conventional and Advanced SAR Altimetry Processing Methods: Preliminary Results

The Delay-Doppler altimeter data processing (commonly called SAR altimetry) is a mature technology offering many advantages in marine radar applications compared to conventional altimetry. Here we describe the potential of SAR altimetry (both unfocused and Fully Focused) for detecting and measuring Internal Solitary Wave (ISW) amplitudes in deep water regions. Analysis of ISW SAR altimeter signatures in the tropical ocean off the Amazon shelf are presented, since their large amplitude ISWs are known to exist. Preliminary results of the dependence of Sea Level Anomalies (SLA) associated to ISWs with respect to the differenced mean square slope variations along the waves' signatures are presented for the first time.