The Performance of Dual-Frequency Polarimetric Scatterometer in Sea Surface Wind Retrieval

摘要

The wind retrieval performance of HY-2 A scanning scatterometer operating at Ku-band in HH and VV polarizations has been well evaluated in the wind speed range of 0–25 m s^-1.In order to obtain more accurate ocean wind field,a potential extension of dual-frequency(C-band and Ku-band)polarimetric measurements is investigated for both low and very high wind speeds,from 5 to 45 m s^-1.Based on the geophysical model functions of C-band and Ku-band,the simulation results show that the polarimetric measurements of Ku-band can improve the wind vector retrieval over the entire scatterometer swath,especially in nadir area,with the wind direction root-mean-square error(RMSE)less than 12?in the wind speed range of 5–25 m s^-1.Furthermore,the results also show that C-band cross-polarization plays a very important role in improving the wind speed retrieval,with the wind speed retrieval accuracy better than 2 m s^-1 for all wind conditions(0–45 m s^-1).For extreme winds,the C-band HH backscatter coefficients modeled by CMOD5.N(H)and the ocean co-polarization ratio model at large incidence are used to retrieve sea surface wind vector.This result reveals that there is a big decrease of wind direction retrieval RMSE for extreme wind fields,and the retrieved result of C-band HH polarization is nearly the same as that of C-band VV polarization for low-to-high wind speed(5–25 m s^-1).Thus,to improve the wind retrieval for all wind conditions,the dual-frequency polarimetric scatterometer with C-band and Ku-band horizontal polarization in inner beam,and C-band horizontal and Ku-band vertical polarization in outer beam,can be used to measure ocean winds.This study will contribute to the wind retrieval with merged satellites data and the future spaceborne scatterometer.