StormWatch 97-98 and beyond: application of SAR as a high resolution scatterometer in coastal regions

In November 1997, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL), in a cooperative agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), initiated a program called StormWatch. The initial emphasis of the program is on using SAR, along with auxiliary data sources, to obtain high resolution (~1 km) coastal wind fields associated with winter storms along the North Atlantic coast between Cape Hatteras and the Grand Banks. The longer term goal is to explore the usefulness, for coastal applications, of the new generation of calibrated wide-swath (400-500 km) spaceborne SARs: the Canadian Radarsat I and II (1995-2000; 2001-2006), the European Envisat I (2000-2005), and possibly the U.S. LightSAR (presently unapproved). Of ultimate interest is the question of whether a synchronized constellation of such wide-swath SARs might yield operationally useful daily coverage in the midlatitude coastal zones