Comparison of optical and radar measurements of surf and swash zone velocity fields

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Surf zone bore celerities and swash zone surface currents were measured on a shallow sloping, low‐energy beach using two remote sensing methods that differ fundamentally in their imaging mechanisms. Microwave Doppler radar measures electromagnetic backscatter from small‐scale ocean surface roughness while video‐based particle image velocimetry (PIV) relies on image texture resulting from variations in light reflectivity from the ocean surface. Imagery from the two methods showed high correlation, in which regions of high radar backscatter corresponded to visibly identifiable waves and bores propagating across the surf zone. Correlation coefficients between radial velocity time series sampled using the two methods at multiple locations across the surf zone were typically greater than 0.5 for frequencies less than a noise cutoff of 0.25 Hz. Similarly, spectra were found to be coherent at the 95% level with a nearly zero phase shift between the two signals near the broad spectral peak between 0.02 and 0.25 Hz. However, some significant differences were evident. PIV was capable of estimating both cross‐shore and alongshore surface velocities while the use of one microwave Doppler radar system restricted surface velocity estimates from that technique to line of sight (radial) only. PIV was found to be more capable of estimating swash zone (uprush and backwash) surface velocities as a smoother water surface in the swash zone adversely affected radar reflectivity. In contrast, microwave Doppler radar was found to be more capable of estimating the surface velocity between bores when insufficient image texture was recorded in the video imagery. Both techniques were capable of measuring surf zone bore celerities through comparison to a shallow water model and to independent celerity estimates extracted from the slope of individual bore trajectories. Typical normalized errors were roughly 25% for radar and 15% for PIV.