Wind map retrieval from SAR data for offshore wind turbines positioning

The feasibility study for the selection of the optimal site for offshore wind farms is usually made by in situ measurements. This methodology suffers from point information that is not sufficient for this purpose, because it is needed a dense spatial wind information. Remote sensing overcomes this problem by using the high capability to cover periodically wide areas in one acquisition. From this point of view satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) wind mapping can be a useful tool in selecting optimal sites and may therefore increase the cost-effectiveness of planning wind farms. In this paper an overview on the physical backscattering mechanisms that models the wind signatures in SAR images is illustrated. Several strategies to derive wind map are described and some results using CMOD algorithm are shown.