Wave Orbital Velocity Effects on Radar Doppler Altimeter for Sea Monitoring

The orbital velocity of sea wave particles affects the value of sea surface parameters as measured by radar Doppler altimeters (also known as delay Doppler altimeter (DDA)). In DDA systems, the along-track resolution is attained by algorithms that take into account the Doppler shift induced by the component along the Earth/antenna direction of the satellite velocity, VS. Since the vertical component of the wave particle orbital velocity also induces an additional Doppler effect (in the following R-effect), an error arises on the positioning of the target on the sea surface. A numerical investigation shows that when the wavelength of sea waves is of the same order of magnitude of the altimeter resolution, the shape of the waveform might be significantly influenced by the R-effect. The phenomenon can be particularly important for the monitoring of long swells, such as those that often take place in the oceans.