OSD Ocean Science Discussions OSD Ocean Sci. Discuss. 1812-0822 Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/osd-9-3239-2012 A discussion on the use of X-band SAR images in marine applications Schiavulli D. 1 Sorrentino A. 2 Migliaccio M. 2 Università degli Studi di Napoli "Parthenope", Dipartimento di Scienze Applicate Napoli, Italy Università degli Studi di Napoli "Parthenope", Dipartimento per le Tecnologie Napoli, Italy 15 10 2012 9 5 3239 3249 Copyright: © 2012 D. Schiavulli et al. 2012 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://os.copernicus.org/preprints/9/3239/2012/osd-9-3239-2012.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://os.copernicus.org/preprints/9/3239/2012/osd-9-3239-2012.pdf

The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is able to generate images of the sea surface that can be exploited to extract geophysical information of environmental interest. In order to enhance the operational use of these data in the marine applications the revisit time is to be improved. This goal can be achieved by using SAR virtual or real constellations and/or exploiting new antenna technologies that allow huge swath and fine resolution. Within this framework, the presence of the Italian and German X-band SAR constellations is of special interest while the new SAR technologies are not nowadays operated. <br><br> Although SAR images are considered to be independent of weather conditions, this is only partially true at higher frequencies, e.g. X-band. In fact, observations can present signature corresponding to high intensity precipitating clouds, i.e. rain cells. Further, ScanSAR images may be characterized by the presence of processing artifacts, called scalloping, that corrupt image interpretation. <br><br> In this paper we review these key facts that are at the basis of an effective use of X-band SAR images for marine applications.

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