Wind speed estimation using C-band compact polarimetric SAR for wide swath imaging modes

Abstract We have investigated the use of C-band compact polarimetric synthetic aperture radar for estimation of ocean surface wind speeds. Using 1399 buoy observations collocated with Radarsat-2 scenes, compact polarimetric data was simulated for two of the Radarsat Constellation’s planned wide swath imaging modes. Provided the wind direction is known or can be estimated, our results demonstrate that wind speed can be estimated from the right-vertical polarization channel of the compact polarimetry using a combination of the CMOD5 geophysical model function and a linear model. If wind speed estimation without wind direction input is desired, the randomly-polarized component of the backscattered power can be used in a similar fashion to that of the linear cross-polarizations, but is less affected by increases in the noise effective sigma-zero of the data. A model is proposed for the randomly-polarized power as a function of incidence angle and wind speed, independent of wind direction. The results suggest that compact polarimetry is a strong alternative to linearly polarized synthetic aperture radar data for wind speed estimation applications, particularly for wide swath imaging modes with a high noise floor.