Airborne passive polarimetric measurements of sea surface anisotropy at 92 GHz

Author

Kunkee, D.B. ; Gasiewski, A.J.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. and Comput. Eng., Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA, USA

Volume

4

fYear

1994

fDate

8-12 Aug 1994

Firstpage

2413

Abstract

The potential for remote sensing of ocean wave direction using passive polarimetric microwave observations was investigated. A fixed-beam 91.65 GHz polarimetric radiometer was mounted on the NASA DC-8 aircraft during the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere/Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA/COARE January-February 1993). Several experiments were performed during which the DC-8 was flown in constant bank-angle turns at ~1.5 km altitude to obtain azimuthal scans of the sea surface at fixed observation angles. Data at 650 from nadir are consistent with previous findings using 19- and 37-GHz Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) satellite observations and support the claim that a broadband emission mechanism is responsible for the azimuthal brightness signatures. Accordingly, a tilted-facet geometrical optics (GO) model of the surface was developed to investigate emission from deterministic and random striated surfaces. Laboratory measurements of polarimetric emission at 92 GHz from small-amplitude water-waves corroborate this model

Keywords

millimetre wave measurement; ocean waves; oceanographic techniques; polarimetry; radiometry; remote sensing; 91.65 GHz; 92 GHz; COARE; EHF; TOGA; airborne radiometry; azimuthal brightness signature; broadband emission mechanism; measurement technique; mm wave millimetric radiometry; ocean wave direction; passive polarimetric measurement; polarimetric emission; polarimetry; random striated surface; remote sensing; sea surface; sea surface anisotropy; tilted-facet geometrical optics model; Aircraft; Atmosphere; Atmospheric measurements; Microwave radiometry; NASA; Ocean waves; Optical surface waves; Remote sensing; Sea measurements; Sea surface;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 1994. IGARSS '94. Surface and Atmospheric Remote Sensing: Technologies, Data Analysis and Interpretation., International

Conference_Location

Pasadena, CA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-1497-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.1994.399754

Filename

399754