Specific Scattering Cross Section for Sensing of the Sea Surface in the Nadir

摘要

The paper presents a theoretical study of the scattering of a radar microwave signal by the ocean surface and considers the dependence of the specific backscattering cross section at normal incidence on the state of the sensed surface. It is shown that there is no unambiguous connection between the backscattering cross and the near-surface wind speed, which leads to errors in estimates of the latter from remote sensing data.