| [1] The two scatterometers currently in operation, the Ku-band NASA Seawinds on the QuikScat satellite and the C-band AMI-Wind on the ERS-2 satellite, are designed to infer the ocean wind vectors from sea surface radar backscatter measurements. They provide excellent coverage of the ocean, and their wind products are of great value for ocean and meteorological communities. However, the presence of rain within scatterometer cells can significantly modify the sea surface backscatter coefficient and hence alter the wind vector retrieval. These perturbations can hamper the analysis of wind fields within atmospheric low-pressure systems or tropical cyclones. Rain perturbations result from volume scattering and attenuation by raindrops in the atmosphere as well... |
