Combined ocean surface models for L-band microwave radiometry

A combined multifactor hydrodynamic-electromagnetic model for ocean remote sensing is considered. We are focusing on microwave contributions from environmental factors: surface roughness, foam/whitecap, subsurface bubbles, and spray, and their joint impacts on ocean emissivity. This paper has presented a sketch of our numerical data related to L-band (1.4 GHz). In particular, we compute so-called L-band radiation-wind dependencies (RWD) - brightness temperature contrast vs. wind speed, parameterized by sea surface temperature (SST) and sea surface salinity (SSS). We can also estimate brightness-temperature variations induced by SST and SSS gradients at variable surface conditions. To validate model data, detailed comparisons with field microwave radiometric experiment (WISE 2000) are performed. We suppose that our study can be helpful in realizations of AQUARIUS and SMOS space missions dedicated to the global monitoring of SSS.