Soviet oceanographic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) research

Technical Report · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:5870284

Held, D N; Gasparovic, R F; Mansfield, A W; Melville, W K; Mollo-Christensen, E L; Zebker, H A

Radar non-acoustic anti-submarine warfare (NAASW) became the subject of considerable scientific investigation and controversy in the West subsequent to the discovery by the Seasat satellite in 1978 that manifestations of underwater topography, thought to be hidden from the radar, were visible in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images of the ocean. In addition, the Seasat radar produced images of ship wakes where the observed angle between the wake arms was much smaller than expected from classical Kelvin wake theory. These observations cast doubt on the radar oceanography community's ability to adequately explain these phenomena, and by extension on the ability of existing hydrodynamic and radar scattering models to accurately predict the observability of submarine-induced signatures. If one is of the opinion that radar NAASW is indeed a potentially significant tool in detecting submerged operational submarines, then the Soviet capability, as evidenced throughout this report, will be somewhat daunting. It will be shown that the Soviets have extremely fine capabilities in both theoretical and experimental hydrodynamics, that Soviet researchers have been conducting at-sea radar remote sensing experiments on a scale comparable to those of the United States for several years longer than we have, and that they have both an airborne and spaceborne SAR capability. The only discipline that the Soviet Union appears to be lacking is in the area of digital radar signal processing. If one is of the opinion that radar NAASW can have at most a minimal impact on the detection of submerged submarines, then the Soviet effort is of little consequence and poses not threat. 280 refs., 31 figs., 12 tabs.

• Research Organization: Science Applications International Corp., McLean, VA (USA). Foreign Applied Sciences Assessment Center
• OSTI ID: 5870284
• Report Number(s): FASAC-TAR-91010930; ON: TI91010930
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
450000* -- Military Technology
Weaponry
& National Defense
58 GEOSCIENCES
580000 -- Geosciences
ASIA
CURRENTS
DATA ANALYSIS
DATA PROCESSING
DETECTION
EASTERN EUROPE
EUROPE
FLUID MECHANICS
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
HYDRODYNAMICS
IMAGES
INTERNAL WAVES
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MECHANICS
OCEANOGRAPHY
PROCESSING
RADAR
RANGE FINDERS
REMOTE SENSING
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SATELLITES
SHIPS
SUBMARINES
SURFACE WATERS
SYNTHETIC-APERTURE RADAR
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
USSR
WATER CURRENTS
WAVE PROPAGATION