Abstract. Experimental data obtained in the past several years have provided conclusive evidence that non-Bragg scattering plays a major role in X-band microwave backscatter from water wave surfaces, and non-Bragg scattering events are especially noticeable at small grazing angles, for wind-roughened surfaces, in the presence of breaking waves. We have conducted scattering experiments under a variety of wind wave conditions in an attempt to determine the different mechanisms which contribute to non-Bragg scattering. At small grazing angles we find that non-Bragg scattering is due to fast scatterers generated by the wave breaking, and with increasing wave steepness and surface roughness, mechanisms of multiple scattering and multipath interference become increasingly important. -1 m) and the temporal radar backscatter was correlated with video images. They observed single-bounce backscatter from specular facets and gave quantitative results of the measured distribution of facet size. Closer scrutiny of their data reveals that the specular reflection they observed was not due to fast scatterers but rather to the slowest scatterers and was due to backscatter from the smoother patches in the troughs of larger waves. However, the notion of "specular reflection," which produces signals with HH = VV, was quickly adopted by theoreticians and modelers, and it was assumed that single-bounce reflection from specular facets was 123