Estimation of ocean wave wavenumber and propagation direction from limited synthetic aperture radar data

A method for estimating wavenumber and propagation direction for the dominant wave component in an ocean wave field from a few scans of synthetic aperture radar data is described and analyzed. The use of just a few radar scans rather than a complete image reduces data storage requirements significantly. The analysis shown uses actual synthetic aperture radar data and provides parameter tradeoffs and statistical performance results. While reasonable estimates of wavenumber and propagation direction are achieved in some cases, the estimates are not sufficiently consistent to be satisfactory over a wide range of cases. The primary problem is one of low signal-to-noise ratio of the radar scan data.