The nearshore wave field within Monterey Bay, California, is studied using remote sensing imaging by an interferometric synthetic aperture radar (INSAR) and simultaneous ground-based measurements. It is shown that INSAR imagery of the ocean surface offers some advantages over conventional synthetic aperture radar. Because of the direct imaging mechanism of INSAR, quantitative information about the complicated wave field can be obtained. The INSAR-derived directional energy density spectra and the corresponding ground-based spectra compare well. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1991