Use of synthetic aperture radar in the fine-scale analysis of synoptic-scale fronts at sea

The viability of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) as a tool for fine-scale marine meteorological analyses of synoptic-scale fronts is demonstrated. In particular, it is shown that SAR can reveal the presence of, and the mesoscale and microscale sub-structures associated with, synoptic-scale cold fronts, warm fronts, occluded fronts, and secluded fronts. The basis for these findings is the analysis of some 6000 RADARSAT SAR images from the Gulf of Alaska and from off the east coast of North America. This analysis yielded 158 cases of well defined frontal signatures: 22 warm fronts, 37 cold fronts, 3 stationary fronts, 32 occluded fronts, and 64 secluded fronts.