Retrieval of whitecap coverage with the ERS-1 scatterometer data

Abstract

In this paper, the whitecap coverage is retrieved from the ERS-1 data and the KHCC03 scattering model which takes into account the effect of wave breaking, and a new whitecap coverage formula is obtained based on the retrieval results. The results calculated from this new formula of whitecap coverage have better agreement with the measured whitecap coverage than those obtained by some famous previous formula in the range of wind speed at 10 m height from 7 m/s to 16 m/s. This shows that it is feasible to retrieve whitecap coverage from scatterometer data and the scattering model including the effect of wave breaking. Moreover, this approach is different from those methods usually used in passive remote sensing.