On airborne measurement of the sea surface wind vector by a scatterometer (altimeter) with a nadir-looking wide-beam antenna

A pilot needs operational information about wind over sea as well as wave height to provide safety for a hydroplane landing on water. Near-surface wind speed and direction can be obtained with an airborne microwave scatterometer, a radar designed for measuring the scatter characteristics of a surface. Mostly narrow-beam antennas are applied for such wind measurement. Unfortunately, a microwave narrow-beam antenna has considerable size that hampers its placement on flying apparatus. In this connection, a possibility to apply a conventional airborne radar altimeter as a scatterometer with a nadir-looking wide-beam antenna in conjunction with Doppler filtering for recovering the wind vector over sea is discussed, and measuring algorithms of sea surface wind speed and direction are proposed. The obtained result can be interesting for many studies in oceanography, meteorology, air-sea interaction, and climate change and for creation of an airborne radar system for amphibious airplane safe landing on the sea surface, in particular for search and rescue operations in coastal areas.