Comparison of inversion models of wind speed retrieval from C-band Sentinel-1 and X-band TerraSAR-X data

International audienceRetrieval of sea surface wind speed from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data is one of the most widely used methods, since it can give higher resolutions than the other available surface wind sources. For this approach, two principal methods can be found: one is based on electromagnetic (EM) models and the other is based on empirical (EP) ones. In both indicated ways, the Geophysical Model Functions (GMFs) are used to describe the dependency of radar scattering on wind speed and the geometry of observations. By knowing radar scattering and geometric parameters from SAR data, it is possible to invert the GMFs to retrieve sea wind speed. Wind speed estimated by two studied models is compared together and evaluated with measured data. Based on the comparisons, the advantages and limits of the studied models are analyzed and discussed