Abstract
Radar imagery of shallow coastal waters (usually <40 m deep) contain unexplained features1–3 resembling the bottom topography. Since microwave radiation does not penetrate far in sea-water, these features must be the result of hydrodynamic processes coupled to the bottom topography that modulate the amplitude of the short (Bragg resonant) sea-surface waves, the main contributors to the backscattered radar power4,5. Because many different hydrodynamic processes operate in coastal waters, and the precise mechanism which generates the radar images is not fully established, a programme to explore the mechanism(s) was initiated at the US Naval Research Laboratory. Here we give a brief description of the possible mechanisms and results from the pilot experiment conducted in July 1982, 40 nautical miles south-east of Nantucket Island.
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Valenzuela, G., Chen, D., Garrett, W. et al. Shallow water bottom topography from radar imagery. Nature 303, 687–689 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1038/303687a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/303687a0
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