# Detection of Elusive Rogue Wave with Cross-Track Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging Approach

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a new radar imaging method to detect dangerous rogue waves by analyzing sea surface height with high accuracy and spatial resolution.

## Contribution

A cross-track interferometric SAR approach is proposed for real-time detection of rogue waves with high spatial resolution and accuracy.

## Key findings

- The XTI-SAR method achieved a spatial resolution of 3 m × 3 m and height accuracy of decimeters.
- The approach was validated through simulations under varying wind speeds and operational parameters.
- Optimal ranges for look angle, baseline, and filter size were identified for effective rogue wave detection.

## Abstract

Rogue waves are reported to wreck ships and claim lives. The prompt detection of their presence is difficult due to their small footprint and unpredictable emergence. The retrieval of sea surface height via remote sensing techniques provides a viable solution for detecting rogue waves. However, conventional synthetic aperture radar (SAR) techniques are ineffective at retrieving the surface height profile of rogue waves in real time due to nonlinearity between surface height and normalized radar cross-section (NRCS), which is not obvious in the absence of rogue waves. In this work, a cross-track interferometric SAR (XTI-SAR) imaging approach is proposed to detect elusive rogue waves over a wide area, with sea-surface profiles embedding rogue waves simulated using a probability-based model. The performance of the proposed imaging approach is evaluated in terms of errors in the position and height of rogue-wave peaks, the footprint area of rogue waves, and a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of the sea-surface height profile. Different rogue-wave events under different wind speeds are simulated, and the reconstructed height profiles are analyzed to determine the proper ranges of look angle, baseline, and mean-filter size, among other operation variables, in detecting rogue waves. The proposed approach is validated by simulations in detecting a rogue wave at a spatial resolution of 3 m × 3 m and height accuracy of decimeters.