On three consecutive ascending passes in January 1997, Radarsat-1 in its narrow ScanSAR mode (300-km swath) passed over the Gulf
Stream and coastal waters of the eastern United States. The easterly two of the passes occurred during two separate midwinter cold air outbreaks.
The cold air, moving rapidly southeastward off the land, gradually warmed and expanded as it passed toward and over the Gulf Stream. As a
result, the air became increasingly unstable, and eventually “exploded” into isolated couplets of updrafts and downdrafts. The resulting SAR
surface signature clearly shows this complex three-dimensional interplay of fluxes (see articles in this issue by Brown, Young, Vachon et al.,
Katsaros et al., Sikora et al., Horstmann et al., and Mourad et al.). The smaller mosaics of the same region show simultaneous computer model
winds and waves, sea surface temperature, and near-shore bathymetry. (Radarsat imagery © CSA 1997; model wind and waves from the U.S.
Navy Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, Monterey, CA; sea surface temperature from NOAA Advanced Very High
Resolution Radiometer; bathymetry maps through R. Sterner, JHU/APL; composite by Kenneth R. Moscati.)