Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) RADARSAT-2 observations continue in/around the South Pacific Ocean surrounding American Samoa. On 6 February, observations occurred at 0543 and 1640 UTC. The toggle below compares the 0540 UTC Band 13 Clean Window infrared (10.3 µm) image with overlain SAR winds (color-enhanced with the AWIPS ‘gridded data’... Read More
As noted previously, NOAA/STAR has arranged for special Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) wind observations over American Samoa during the month of February. Sentinel-1A SAR also provides occasional observations in and around the Samoan islands. The toggle above compares (using imagery from this website) derived wind speed and Normalized Radar Cross Section (NRCS) at 0600 UTC on 5... Read More
As noted in the past blog post, the NWS Water Surface Conditions / Synthetic Aperture Radar Science Team has arranged for observations over the Samoan Islands on 9 dates between 30 January 2023 and 5 March 2023 (imagery is available online here). The image above shows both the derived winds and the Normalized Radar Cross Section (NRCS) from 0556... Read More
SAR data are being acquired over American Samoa for the next several weeks. SAR data from a Sentinel-1A overpass at 0553 UTC on 31 January, shown above (from this website), shows mostly light winds, mostly less than 10 m/s. The Normalized Radar Cross Section (NRCS) data can be used to view any ice contamination in the wind speed image.... Read More
