Active/passive remote sensing of ocean wind vector for hurricane reconnaissance applications

By combining the wind speed and direction estimates from scatterometers and wind speed estimates from a C-band radiometer, the surface wind field in hurricanes can be remotely sensed from an aircraft platform. In the absence of precipitation, wind speed estimates can be derived from Ku-band normalized RCS (NRCS) and C-band brightness temperature measurements. In precipitation, the brightness temperature measurements can be used. The wind direction can be retrieved from NRCS measurements, even in precipitation, provided the full azimuthal response is measured. For a three look scatterometer, the effect of precipitation on the directional signature must be modeled to accurately retrieve the wind direction.