Airborne Optical Remote Sensing of Ocean Currents

This paper reports on the first data collections with the Remote Ocean Current Imaging System (ROCIS). ROCIS exploits time-space processing of airborne ocean wave imagery to produce maps of surface currents. These results demonstrate that the optical imaging technique has the potential to provide accurate (5 cm s(-1)) surface current data over large areas both rapidly and cost effectively and complements traditional ocean survey approaches. This unique capability provides maps of current vectors on 250m x 250m (or finer) grids across a 3 km swath along the flight path. ROCIS may enable new understanding of ocean processes and be employed to provide improved regional ocean forecasts during a spill response.