WindSat calibration and geophysical parameter estimation," presented at

Abstract – Three aspects of WindSat performance are presented. 1. End-to-end system calibration is tested by comparisons be-tween WindSat measurements and a robust model of the Earth TB using the vicarious cold reference method. 2. In an effort to determine probable causes for any calibration biases or scale errors that are identified, a refined Antenna Pattern Correction algorithm has been developed that includes main reflector aper-ture illumination and edge diffraction effects, in addition to the feed spillover effects that are already accounted for in Wind-Sat’s nominal flight processing algorithm. 3. A wind vector retrieval algorithm has been developed that is based on an em-pirical geophysical model function relating the four Stokes com-ponents of ocean surface emissivity to wind speed and direction. In order to implement an emissivity-based retrieval, decomposi-tion of the radiative transfer equation is performed into surface and atmospheric contributions