Synthetic aperture radar observations of currents colocated with slicks

During low wind conditions, our synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery of the ocean contains examples of strong perturbations in the geometry of persistent turbulent ship wakes at the intersection of wakes with dark slicklike features. The perturbations in the wakes are presumably caused by currents and are invariably colocated with slicklike submesoscale features. The current dynamics, influencing the geometry of turbulent wakes, are hypothesized to contribute to the efficient accretion of a biotic and abiotic microlayer in a localized surface zone, which is observed as a dark slick in our SAR imagery. Time displaced SAR imagery allows us to track the time evolution of the turbulent wake perturbations to determine the differential surface current responsible for the perturbations and to estimate the associated shear. In addition, the time displaced imagery also allows us to observe the temporal stability of the slicklike features.