A new polarization ratio model from platform-borne scatterometer data

Polarization ratio (PR) is very important to retrieve wind vector from HH polarized synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Several empirical and theoretical PR models have been proposed in the literature. However, most of these existing PR models are derived from a limited set of SAR imagery or airborne radar. The large in situ dual-polarized scatterometer observation dataset obtained from our experiment, which is conducted in South China Sea (SCS) during 2012, provides an encouraging opportunity to investigate PR characteristics. In this paper a new PR model is constructed using our in situ dual-polarization observations. We also assess the PR dependence on sea state. The result demonstrates that sea surface wave plays an important role of modulation of PR.