Sea state and wind speed

Monitoring of sea state and sea surface wind is certainly of fundamental importance for studies on climatology, meteorology, weather forecast, and ocean circulation. However, it has a great relevance also in the framework of maritime surveillance, particularly for navigation safety. In fact, of course navigation safety strongly depends on weather forecasts; in addition, knowledge of sea surface winds and sea currents allows predicting paths followed by fl oating sea ice and icebergs, which constitute a serious danger for navigation. Also, knowledge of wind speed and surface currents allows predicting the spreading and movements of oil spills over the sea surface. Microwave remote sensing systems, such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems, have been recognized since their fi rst operational uses as the ideal sensors for the monitoring of sea state and sea surface winds.