Abstract
Wind vector information over the ocean is currently obtained using multiple beam scatterometer data. The scatterometers on ERS-1/2 generate wind vector information with a spatial resolution of 50km and accuracies of $\pm$2m/s in wind speed and $\pm$20$^{\circ}$ in wind direction. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data over the ocean have the potential of providing wind vector information independent of weather conditions with finer resolution. Finer resolution wind vector information can often be useful particularly in coastal regions where the scatterometer wind information is often corrupted because of the lower resolution system characteristics which is often contaminated by the signal returns from the coastal areas or ice in the case of arctic environments. In this paper we tested CMOD_4 and CMOD_IFR2 algorithms for extracting the wind vector from SAR data. These algorithms require precise estimation of normalized radar cross-section and wind direction from the SAR data and the local incidence angle. The CMOD series algorithms were developed for the C-band, VV-Polarized SAR data, typically for the ERS SAR data. Since RADARSAT operates at the same C-band but with HH-Polarization, the CMOD series algorithms should not be used directly. As a preliminary approach of resolving with this problem, we applied the polarization ratio between the HH and VV polarizations in the wind vectors estimation. Two test areas, one in front of Inchon and several sites around Jeju island were selected and investigated for wind vector estimation. The new results were compared with the wind vectors obtained from CMOD algorithms. The wind vector results agree well with the observed wind speed data. However the estimation of wind direction agree with the observed wind direction only when the wind speed is greater than approximately 3.0m/s.