Observations of Land Surface Passive Polarimetry with WindSat

WindSat provides an opportunity to explore what new information about the land surface can be obtained from passive polarimetric microwave measurements. Large and homogeneous regions were identified that represented unique features. These included forest, rangeland, desert and agriculture conditions. WindSat observations over land surfaces were found to be well calibrated and consistent with other passive microwave sensors. Initial results showed that land surfaces with aligned features (topography or row structured vegetation) produced systematic variations in the 3^rd and 4^th Stokes parameters. Further analyses will seek to isolate specific features that could be used in applications such as soil moisture retrieval