Young, G.S., T.D. Sikora, N.S. Winstead

Use of Synthetic Aperture Radar in Fine-Scale Surface Analysis of Synoptic-Scale Fronts at Sea

Weather and Forecasting, 20, 311-327

Abstract

The viability of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) as a tool for fine-scale marine meteorological surface analyses of synoptic-scale fronts is demonstrated. In particular, it is shown that SAR can reveal the presence of, and the mesoscale and microscale sub-structures associated with, synoptic-scale cold fronts, warm fronts, occluded fronts, and secluded fronts. The basis for these findings is the analysis of some 6000 RADARSAT-1 SAR images from the Gulf of Alaska and from off the east coast of North America. This analysis yielded 158 cases of well defined frontal signatures: 22 warm fronts, 37 cold fronts, 3 stationary fronts, 32 occluded fronts, and 64 secluded fronts. The potential synergies between SAR and a range of other data sources are discussed for representative fronts of each type.