Polarimetric radar remote sensing of ocean surface wind

Abstract

Experimental data are presented to support the development of a new concept for ocean wind velocity measurement (speed and direction) with the polarimetric microwave radar technology. This new concept has strong potential for improving the wind velocity measurement accuracy and for extending the useful swath width by up to 35 percent for follow-on spaceborne scatterometers to NASA SeaWinds missions. The key issue is whether there is a relationship between the polarization state of ocean backscatter and ocean wind velocity at NASA scatterometer frequencies (13 GHz). A set of aircraft flights indicated clear and repeatable wind direction signals in polarimetric Ku-band scatterometer observations of sea surfaces at 10 m/s wind speed.