Depth Contours Appeared on SAR Images by Interactions Between Tidal Currents and Bottom Topography

X-SAR images taken on the coastal waters of Hwanghe province in Korea during SIR-C/X-SAR campaign in April and October 1994 are analysed. The SAR images show the peculiar signatures like nail marks, curved long string, and vortex street patterns and they all seem to be produced by strong interactions between the topography in the coastal waters and tidal currents. The nail mark signatures are located at the same position of small scaled sand banks and the curved line patterns are almost identical to the outer boundary of large sand banks. Based on the tidal records, all the three images are taken at the almost same phase of tidal cycles, which are close to the low tide. It seems that bottom shapes are more strongly appeared on the SAR images when the tidal currents are slow. The front between two different current velocities caused by the flows along the steep boundaries of sandbanks is also the main factors imprinting the bottom features to the sea surface SAR images.