The SeaSat-A satellite scatterometer

Author

Grantham, Williamm L. ; Bracalente, Emedio M. ; Jones, W. Linwood ; Johnson, James W.

Author_Institution

NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, USA

Volume

2

Issue

2

fYear

1977

fDate

4/1/1977 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

200

Lastpage

206

Abstract

This paper describes the methods used to develop performance requirements and design characteristics for the microwave scatterometer (SASS) ocean-surface wind sensor on the NASA SeaSat-A satellite. Wind vector measurement requirements from the SeaSat user community such as wind speed and direction accuracy, resolution cell size, grid spacing, and swath width formed the basis for defining instrument characteristics. The resulting scatterometer is designed for 14.6 GHz using four fan beam antennas to measure wind speed and direction over a 1000-km swath width with a resolution cell size $50 \\times 50$ km. Results presented show scatterometer accuracy satisfies user requirements for wind speed from 4 m/s to greater than 24 m/s for the nominal SeaSat-A orbit of 790 km altitude, $108\\deg$ inclination, and 0.001 eccentricity.

Keywords

Meteorological satellites; Sea surface electromagnetic scattering; Antenna measurements; Extraterrestrial measurements; Microwave theory and techniques; Radar measurements; Satellites; Sea measurements; Sensor phenomena and characterization; Size measurement; Velocity measurement; Wind speed;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Oceanic Engineering, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0364-9059

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JOE.1977.1145338

Filename

1145338