A study of polar lows with synthetic aperture radar and GOES imagery

Author

Friedman, Karen S. ; Pichel, William G. ; Clemente-Colon, Pablo ; Li, Xiaofeng

Author_Institution

Caelum Res. Corp., NOAA, Camp Springs, MD, USA

Volume

4

fYear

1999

fDate

1999

Firstpage

1978

Abstract

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is very effective at imaging polar lows over the ocean. The ScanSAR mode on the Canadian satellite RADARSAT-1, with its 500 km swath width, is large enough to cover small storms such as polar lows. The HH polarization of RADARSAT-1 resolves atmospheric effects remarkably well. A data collection effort that began in the winter of 1997-98 was continued for 1998-1999. In total, eleven polar lows have been imaged. This paper examines a polar low imaged by SAR on October 24, 1998, which was not observed using other standard data. This storm was approximately 130 km wide and exhibited a very distinct eye

Keywords

atmospheric movements; atmospheric techniques; meteorological radar; meteorology; remote sensing by radar; spaceborne radar; storms; synthetic aperture radar; AD 1997; AD 1998; AD 1998 10 24; AD 1999; Arctic Ocean; Bering Sea; GOES imagery; North Pacific; RADARSAT-1; SAR; ScanSAR; eye; measurement technique; meteorology; polar lows; radar remote sensing; storm; synthetic aperture radar; Energy resolution; Hurricanes; Oceans; Polarization; Satellites; Sea surface; Spatial resolution; Springs; Storms; Synthetic aperture radar;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 1999. IGARSS '99 Proceedings. IEEE 1999 International

Conference_Location

Hamburg

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5207-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.1999.775005

Filename

775005