A fractal model for the sea state bias in radar altimetry

D. E. Bar (1, 2) , Y. Agnon (1, 2)

1 Department of Mathematics
2 Cicil Engineering

The Kirchhoff approximation is used to determine the sea state bias in radar altimetry. A weakly nonlinear model of the sea waves is used to derive the joint moments of two different points separated by a distance R; the bias moment is formulated, and found for power law spectra. The method provides a consistent analysis of the sea state bias and avoids the need to truncate the high frequency tail of power-law wave spectra. The model exhibits dependence of the "electromagnetic bias" on the radar frequency, an effect observed in field experiments.

Domaines: Cosmologie et astrophysique extra-galactique [astro-ph.CO]; Astrophysique [astro-ph]; Sciences de la Terre

D. E. Bar, Y. Agnon. A fractal model for the sea state bias in radar altimetry. Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics, 1997, 4 (4), pp.213-222. ⟨hal-00301865⟩