The influence of the topographic structure of the sea surface on the error of determining the surface wind by satellite optical scanners

Abstract

The error in determining the surface wind speed by use of optical scanners is analyzed as due to the variety of physical factors forming the topographical structure of the sea surface. It is shown that this error can be divided into two components. The first component is caused by the stochastic character of the relation between the wind speed and energy of short surface waves; it does not depend on the average wind speed and amounts to 0.2 m/s. The second component is caused by deviations of the slope distribution from the Gaus-sian distribution; it increases with an increase in wind and varies from 0.1 m/s at a wind speed of 1.5 to 0.4 m/s at a wind speed of 15 m/s.