Polarimetric measurements of sea surface brightness temperatures using an aircraft K-band radiometer

Author

Yueh, Simon H. ; Wilson, William J. ; Li, Fuk K. ; Nghiem, Son V. ; Ricketts, William B.

Author_Institution

Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

Volume

33

Issue

1

fYear

1995

fDate

1/1/1995 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

85

Lastpage

92

Abstract

Presents the first experimental evidence that the polarimetric brightness temperatures of sea surfaces are sensitive to ocean wind direction in the incidence angle range of 30 to 50°. The experimental data were collected by a K-band (19.35 GHz) polarimetric wind radiometer (WINDRAD) mounted on the NASA DC-8 aircraft. A set of aircraft radiometer flights was successfully completed in November 1993. The authors performed circle flights over National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) moored buoys deployed off the northern California coast, which provided ocean wind measurements. The results indicate that passive polarimetric radiometry has a strong potential for global ocean wind speed and direction measurements from space

Keywords

aerospace instrumentation; microwave measurement; oceanographic equipment; oceanographic techniques; radiometers; radiometry; remote sensing; temperature measurement; 19.35 GHz; AD 1993 11; NASA DC-8 aircraft; NDBC moored buoys; NE Pacific coast; WINDRAD; aircraft K-band radiometer; global ocean wind direction measurements; global ocean wind speed measurements; northern California coast; passive polarimetric radiometry; polarimetric brightness temperatures; polarimetric measurements; polarimetric wind radiometer; sea surface brightness temperatures; Aircraft; Brightness temperature; K-band; NASA; Ocean temperature; Performance evaluation; Radiometry; Sea measurements; Sea surface; Wind speed;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0196-2892

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/36.368219

Filename

368219