Remote sensing of waved sea surface: combined passive and active microwave measurements during the CAPMOS’05 experiment

This paper describes the experimental activities carried out during the international experiment CAPMOS´05, which was carried out on an off-shore platform in Katsiveli, Ukraine, in May-June 2005. During the experiment, the sea surface was continuously observed by synchronous active and passive microwave instruments, combined with contact and optical observations, in order to retrieve the wave parameters and to characterize the spectral properties of the waved surface. An additional airborne campaign was carried out on the North Sea to investigate the Radio Frequency Interferences (RFI) effects which seriously may hamper the L-band measurements. Predictions of a two scale emissivity model of waved sea surface resulted in agreement with the radiometric data at S and Ka bands. A method for retrieving the wave spectrum parameters from angular radiometric measurements was developed, and compared with three different spectrum models. An inversion algorithm for retrieving the horizontal wind speed component from radiometric data at S and Ka band was implemented and validated with the experimental acquisitions.