Ocean remote sensing with airborne Ku-band scatterometer

An airborne K_u-band scatterometer (NUSCAT) was used to measure ocean backscatter during the Surface Wave Dynamics Experiment (SWADE). The objective is to improve understanding of the relationship between ocean radar backscatter and near surface winds. Backscatter measurements are presented for the Gulf-Stream boundary, low wind, and large wave effects. Over the boundary crossings, large air-sea temperature differences are encountered and substantial changes in the radar cross section are observed. At low wind speeds, the behavior of the measured radar cross sections is different from model predictions in several cases and backscatters are occasionally 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