MAST: a new sensor concept for sea ice and sea wind imaging

All weather images of sea ice are daily available thanks to passive sensors as SSM/I. They mainly come from the 37 GHz and 19 GHz channel with respectively 35 km and 60 km ground resolution. Mast (standing for millimeter waves aperture synthesis techniques) aims at bringing this ground resolution down to 6 km ((Delta) T equals 1k), by using a larger but fixed 36.5 GHz radiometer with one dimension interferometer techniques. Polarimetry capabilities (measurement of H and V correlation) are also provided at 36.5 GHz with a lower ground resolution, 25 km, and (Delta) T equals 0.1 k. The polarimetric data are combined with the second interferometer channel operating at 18.7 GHz in V polarization in order to retrieve surface wind on ocean.© (1999) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.