Ocean internal waves

Abstract

Although ocean internal waves are waves in the interior of the ocean, they are detectable from satellites because they leave a fingerprint on the sea surface by changing the small-scale sea surface roughness. In some cases, these roughness changes can be captured by optical instruments (when the imaged sea area lies in or close to the specular reflection area of the sun), but the best instrument for capturing internal waves from space is the synthetic aperture radar (SAR). SAR images acquired from satellites have greatly contributed to our knowledge of the distribution and dynamics of internal waves in the world’s ocean.