Small slope approximation for microwave polarimetric observation of the sea surface

The thermal microwave emission of the sea surface is determined mainly by the resonant ripples at near-nadir angles of observation (Irisov et al., 1987). Their amplitudes and directions of propagation are closely related to the local wind speed and direction. The anisotropy of the surface gravitational-capillary waves leads to a polarization dependence, which can be used for the remote sensing of the near-surface wind. The small-slope approximation is developed to calculate the brightness temperature of the rough ocean surface, taking into account the whole sea spectrum. The estimation of the higher order terms is made. The possibility of scanning for full polarization measurements is considered