Radar imaging of the oceans

Spaceborne radars are able to image ocean surface features, providing useful information on a global basis regardless of the weather conditions (especially clouds), both during the day and at night. This article explains this capability and provides illustrations of some of the results obtained. Mechanisms which allow a radar image of the ocean to be formed are outlined. Then several of the main features that are detected and the inferred parameters that can be measured and used by the oceanographic community are presented