Interpretation of convection cell signatures in radar images of the Greenland Sea

We present a comprehensive analysis of a convection cell pattern in two SAR images of a site in the Greenland Sea from the satellites ERS-2 and RADARSAT. It is not obvious whether the observed radar signatures can be attributed to oceanic or atmospheric convection phenomena. We show by numerical simulations that they are, on the one hand, not consistent with the theory of oceanic convection features and their radar imaging mechanism, while, on the other hand, they could very well be caused by atmospheric convection cells. The conclusion that the observed features must be atmospheric convection cells is supported by in-situ data and an AVHRR image of the scenario. We discuss the significance of our findings in view of the general problem of discriminating between radar signatures of oceanic and atmospheric phenomena.