A New Wind Vector Retrieval Algorithm for C-band Airborne SAR

Abstract—A new ocean wind vector retrieval method is proposed that the wind speed and direction are estimated simultaneously using the normalized radar cross sections detected from different angles and geophysical model function according to the sounding characteristics of airborne SAR. The wind direction ambiguity is removed by using the odd symmetry property of polarimetric correlation coefficient with the changes in wind direction. To evaluate the ocean wind field retrieval errors and effects, the C band airborne SAR data are used to obtain the wind speed and direction by the proposed method. Estimated wind vector are compared with wind measurements from buoys. We show that the wind field retrieval method is suited to retrieve high precision wind speed and direction from airborne SAR sounding data without other background sources. Keywords—Retrieval; airborne synthetic aperture radar; wind vector; PPC I