Radar measurements collected during the LAgrangian Submesoscale ExpeRiment (LASER) experiment aboard R/V Walton Smith cruise WS16015 in the Gulf of Mexico from 2016-01-20 to 2016-02-12

This dataset reports near-surface currents and sea surface roughness derived from X-band radar aboard R/V Walton Smith cruise WS16015 in the Gulf of Mexico from 2016-01-20 to 2016-02-12. This data was collected during the CARTHE II sponsored LAgrangian Submesoscale ExpeRiment (LASER) experiment in the northern Gulf of Mexico. It was obtained from a coherent-on-receive marine X-band (9.5 GHz) radar (Braun et al., 2008), developed at Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG), Germany. The data includes backscatter images collected every 2-min that can be used to identify surface features such as fronts. The data also includes current velocity maps obtained by processing series of these images using 3-D Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs) and overlays of the current maps over averaged backscatter images. This dataset supports the publication: Lund, B., Haus, B.K., Horstmann, J., Graber, H.C., Carrasco, R., Laxague, N.J., Novelli, G., Guigand, C.M. and Özgökmen, T.M., 2018. Near-surface current mapping by shipboard marine X-band radar: A validation. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 35(5), pp.1077-1090. doi:10.1175/jtech-d-17-0154.1