Small-Scale and Sub-Mesoscale Phenomena Associated with Upwelling Studied by SAR

In the wake of upwelling events, often small-scale and sub-mesoscale phenomena, like filaments, sub-mesoscale eddies and internal waves, are encountered in the upper ocean layer. Because of their small scale, they are hard to detect from space. Sometimes, under favorable weather and viewing conditions, they become detectable by high-resolution infrared and optical sensors. In this paper, we show that also synthetic aperture radars (SAR) is a useful sensor for studying these small-scale phenomena. To this end, we present some representative SAR images showing radar signatures of sub-mesoscale eddies and short-scale internal waves in the upwelling region south of Sicily.