The Influence of Air Density on Scatterometer Retrievals of Surface Turbulent Stress

摘要

There has long been speculation that scatterometers respond to surface stress rather than wind; however, all previous efforts to demonstrate this suggestion have had negative results. Previous efforts have focused on wave-related changes in stress. Herein, the dependence of stress on near surface air density is examined. The biases expected for such a dependency are found in data similar to those used to calibrate the QuikSCAT (QSCAT) scatterometer.