Comparison of high-resolution wind maps from SAR imagery with in situ measurements from the ONR CBLAST experiments

Each summer during the years 2001-2003, we have obtained SAR imagery over the Mid-Atlantic Bight area off the US east coast to complement ground-truth and airborne measurements collected as part of an ONR-sponsored CBLAST directed research initiative. This imagery has been converted to high-resolution wind maps of the CBLAST experimental area and compared with the extensive in situ and airborne measurements as well with concurrent and coincident SST estimates from AVHRR collected during the CBLAST experimental campaigns. These comparisons show good agreement that furthers our confidence in the SAR wind-mapping technique. Because of the relatively dense sampling of the CBLAST experimental area by our SAR overpasses, we believe the resulting SAR wind maps can provide important constraints on the various modeling studies of the marine boundary layer and ultimately the final conclusions of CBLAST.