default RADARSAT mapping of BORA winds in the Adriatic Sea

RADARSAT mapping of BORA winds in the Adriatic Sea. Askari, Farid ; Signell, Richard P. SR-422. March 2005.

We examine the meteorological phenomena associated with the BORA wind system over the Adriatic Sea using RADARSAT synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. A Bora wind event spins off a number of related atmospheric phenomena which manifest in SAR imagery as: high- intensity jets in the Gulfs of Trieste and Kvarneric, low-intensity shadow regions and island wakes along the Croatian coasts, and high-intensity atmospheric barrier jet along the western Adriatic coast. A key element in this study is the high resolution wind mapping from SAR imagery using scatterometer inversion algorithms and characterizing the Bora morphology. The high-resolution imaging allows for identification of topographically-controlled features and diagnosis of regions of strong vorticity and 3D motion.