SEASAT-A synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and side-looking airborne radar (SLAR) images of ocean waves are examined in the form of normalized directional distributions of backscatter variance at series of frequencies. This method provides a more detailed description of radar results than have contoured two-dimensional wave number spectra and reduces some of the uncertainties in relating radar measurements to the waves. The range of aspects of the radar distribution that parallel those of ocean waves is defined. Within this restriction, not only can dominant wave frequencies and directions be determined accurately, but also the shape of a directional peak at a frequency, its directional width, and the background level can be determined approximately. Some of these aspects are examined with SLAR images obtained near reference wave measurements. Through its superior directional resolution, the radar appears to have distinguished two wave trains at a single frequency only 20¿ different in direction. The SEASAT-A satellite SAR provided an unusual opportunity to examine directional properties of waves in the hostile environment about Hurricane Fico. A swell highly dispersed in frequency and direction at a distance from the center of 450 km had a minimum observed directional width of 11¿. Wave directions, their changes with frequency, and directional widths were in accord with those expected from the hurricane winds. Thematic maps of the direction and width of the swell energy as it spread across the ocean surface show smooth changes in these properties over distance, with relatively small scatter of individual values. These patterns also are in accord with those from a simple hurricane wave emission concept, but details of the distributions show distinct departures that must represent unrecognized smaller-scale fluctuations of the process.