CYGNSS Observations of Ocean Winds and Waves

Abstract

The cyclone global navigation satellite system (CYGNSS), launched on December 15, 2016, represents the first dedicated GNSS-R satellite mission specifically designed to retrieve ocean surface wind speeds in the Tropical Cyclone (TC) environment [1]. CYGNSS uses a constellation of eight microsatellite observatories that can receive both the direct and reflected signals from GNSS. The CYGNSS observatories are capable of collecting up to four simultaneous reflections each, thus providing high temporal-resolution of ocean surface observations. Thus far, most CYGNSS studies have utilized simulated data from the E2ES [2]–[9]. The current setup of the E2ES assumes the surface slope variances and correlation are completely locally wind-driven, and they are calculated solely based on the local wind speed and wind direction. Analysis of the actual CYGNSS measurements during the course of the calibration and validation process indicates that this assumption is not valid over a large portion of the measurements. While the primary objective of the CYGNSS mission is measuring ocean winds in tropical cyclones, examination of collected GNSS-R signal has shown that the measured signal is a function of both winds and waves. This paper discusses CYGNSS capability in measuring both winds and waves over the ocean, and evaluates its capability in tropical cyclones.