Sea surface brightness temperature at L-band: impact of surface currents

Drastically different sea states result for a growing, decaying, or a fully-developed sea due to the presence of a wind field. In addition, the sea state is altered by the superposition of oceanic currents on the wave field created by the wind. This study presents a numerical analysis of the change in the sea surface brightness temperature at L-band computed using the SSA model and a modified Kitaigorodskii-Pierson-Moskowitz sea surface spectrum to account for the presence of surface water currents. Their impact on the brightness temperature variations is evaluated and compared to the brightness temperature fluctuations observed from a tower-based field experiment. The consequences for salinity retrievals from space using L-band radiometry are discussed