SCOPE

The San Clemente Ocean Probing Experiment (SCOPE) was an experiment organized by ETL to study the effects of the atmosphere on active and passive microwave remote sensing measurements of the ocean surface. It was conducted in September, 1993 from a cliff (573 m MSL) on Southern California's San Clemente Island (SCI) which allowed the ETL NOAA/D radar to view the ocean surface out to 50 km and over a 220\170 azimuth sector. Also located on SCI was ETL's Doppler lidar which documented marine boundary layer (MBL) winds in the vicinity of the island. The Floating Instrument Platform (FLIP) from Scripps Institute was positioned 31 km from the radar/lidar site and proved to be an ideal platform from which to measure the atmospheric surface layer wind, wind stress and stability. In-situ measurements of the atmosphere were also made from the R/V Titan and microwave and IR radiometric measurements of emission from the surface were made from a NOAA King Air aircraft. Results of the project include radar observations of ocean surface manifestations of island-generated eddies in the MBL and radar signal modulations caused by propagation of the radar beam through standing waves on the marine inversion when the inversion was below the level of the radar.