b 4 Ocean Remote Sensing with Airborne.pdf

. b . “ . 4 Ocean Remote Sensing with Airborne K.-Band Scatterometer S. V. Nghiem, F’. K. Li, S. 11. Lou, and G. Neumann Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California 91109 A bstnzct - An airborne Ku-band scatterometer (NUS- CAT) was used to measure ocean backscatters during the Surface Wave Dynamics Experiment (S WADE). The objective is to improve understanding of the re- lationship between ocean radar backscatter and near surface winds. BackScatter measurements are pre- sented for Gulf-Stream boundary, low wind, and large wave effects. Over the boundary crossings, large air- sea temperature differences are encountered and sub- stantial changes in the radar cross section are ob- served. At low wind speeds, the behavior of measured radar cross sections is different from model predic- tions in several cases and backscatters are occasion- ally very low in the cross-wind direction. Large waves due to swells have little impact at moderate winds but significantly increase backscatter at light winds. 1. INTRODUCTION Scatterometers at K.-band have been used for remote sensing of near surface ocean winds, such as SEASA’T [1] operated in 1978 and NSCAT [2] to be launched in 1996. Radar returns measured by scatterometers are primarily from the scattering by water waves on the ocean surface. The retrieval of local wind vectors is based on their cor- relation to the radar backscatter. The accuracy of this correlation, however, is in question when a steep tem- perature gradient exists across a sea surface temperature front, the wind speed is low (less than 3 m/s), or swells are in the local oceanic area. In these cases, the validity of the radar scatterometry as a technique for retrieving ocean wind field needs to be investigated, II. NUSCAT AND SWADE NUSCAT is a scatterometer operating at the Ku-band frequency of 14 GHz designed for airborne measurements of ocean backscatters. The scatterometer has dual polar- ization, a peak power of 2