Rain, wind, and backscatter: modeling rain effects on Ku-band ocean wind scatterometers

• Published in: Oceans 2003. Celebrating the Past ... Teaming Toward the Future (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37492) Vol. 1; p. 536 Vol.1
• Main Authors: Stiles, B.W., Yueh, S.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2003
• Subjects: Backscatter; Instruments; Oceans; Pollution measurement; Radar measurements; Rain; Sea measurements; Sea surface; Spaceborne radar; Surface contamination
• ISBN: 0933957300; 9780933957305
• DOI: 10.1109/OCEANS.2003.178636

Spaceborne Ku-band ocean wind scatterometers (SeaWinds, NSCAT) enable frequent global coverage of meso-scale ocean surface winds. These instruments measure the normalized backscatter cross-section (/spl sigma//sub 0/) of the ocean's surface from multiple look directions and use this information to estimate ocean surface wind vectors. Although /spl sigma//sub 0/ is strongly related to surface winds, at Ku-band it is also impacted to varying degrees by rain. Arguably, the most important error source for Ku-band wind scatterometers is rain contamination. In order to calibrate out the effects of rain as much as possible, we must understand the impact of rain on the backscatter measurements which are used to retrieve wind vectors.