Use of Dual Polarization Radar Measurements to Understand the Azimuth Behavior of the Sea Surface Backscattered Signal

We present an analysis of the azimuth anisotropy of the ocean radar backscatter from C-Band observations in VV and HH polarizations from the airborne radar STORM during the VALPARESO experiment. Comparisons with existing semi- empirical models show that none of them are in agreement with the anisotropy of the radar signal, and the trend with wind speed is too weak compared to the observations. This is attributed to a shortcoming in the description of the short surface waves anisotropy. By considering an additional mechanism for nonlinear wave interactions, we show that the short wave anisotropy is modified and can explain the anisotropy of the radar signal.