A series of test flights was conducted over the ocean to collect forward-scattered UHF signals composed of one component directly received from the transmitting aircraft and an indirect component reflected from the ocean. These two signal components, received at different angles, have different Doppler frequencies induced by the relative motion of transmitter and receiver. This paper proposes a differential Doppler processing technique for ocean remote sensing that can be used with this type of signal data base to study ocean scattering physics. To illustrate the use of this technique, characteristics of differential Doppler spectra obtained from preliminary analysis of the data are compared with simulations using a particular scattering model. However, the technique is independent of the model and therefore can be used to compare alternatives. The differential Doppler technique maps signal energy reflected from different regions of the ocean surface onto different resolution cells in the frequency domain. Thus is should be possible to study surface correlation features by comparing variations in the spectral responses at pairs of resolution cells. However, more needs to be done to further develop and validate this approach. ¿ American Geophysical Union