A novel active and passive microwave remote sensing technique for measuring ocean surface wind vector

This paper describes a novel technique of ocean surface vector wind measurement using active and passive microwave sensing from a satellite. For over a decade, satellite microwave scatterometers have remotely sensed ocean wind vector (speed and direction) by measuring ocean radar backscatter (sigma-0) at several different azimuth angles (looking forward and aft). Also, ocean wind speeds have been measured by conical scanning passive microwave radiometers looking either forward or aft. This paper combines these two techniques to obtain wind speed and direction from a conical scanning instrument that scans either forward or aft, which is extremely desirable from an instrument design and satellite accommodations standpoint. An overview of the active/passive wind vector algorithm is discussed, and wind vector retrievals are presented using microwave measurements from Japan's ADEOS-II satellite. These results are compared with wind vectors from the SeaWinds scatterometer.