Comparison of the Sentinel-1B Synthetic Aperture Radar With Airborne Microwave Sensors in an Extra-Tropical Cyclone

Type Article
Date 2020-07
Language English
Author(s) Sapp Joseph W.1, 2, Mouche AlexisORCID3, Jelenak Zorana2, 4, Chang Paul S.2, Frasier Stephen J.5
Affiliation(s) 1 : Global Sci & Technol GST Inc, College Pk, MD 20740 USA.
2 : NOAA, Natl Environm Satellite Data & Informat Serv NESD, College Pk, MD 20740 USA.
3 : IFREMER, Lab Oceanog Phys & Spatiale, F-29280 Plouzane, France.
4 : Univ Corp Atmospheric Res UCAR, Boulder, CO 80307 USA.
5 : Univ Massachusetts, Microwave Remote Sensing Lab, Amherst, MA 01003 USA.
Source Ieee Transactions On Geoscience And Remote Sensing (0196-2892) (Ieee-inst Electrical Electronics Engineers Inc), 2020-07 , Vol. 58 , N. 7 , P. 4721-4729
DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2020.2966332
WOS© Times Cited 1
Keyword(s) Satellites, Aircraft, Spaceborne radar, Synthetic aperture radar, Sea measurements, Wind speed, C-band, cross polarization, normalized radar cross section (NRCS), ocean winds, scatterometry
Abstract

In Winter 2017, the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (IWRAP) was flown on a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) WP-3D Hurricane Hunter aircraft under the direction of scientists from Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) at NOAA/National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) over the North Atlantic ocean out of Shannon, Ireland. IWRAP is a dual-frequency, conically scanning, profiling Doppler radar initially developed by Microwave Remote Sensing Laboratory (MIRSL) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst that is routinely installed on the NOAA WP-3D research aircraft. The flight on February 6, 2017, targeted a region of high winds (greater than 30 m/s) that was also observed by the Sentinel-1B satellite's synthetic aperture radar. Sentinel-1B was configured to observe in extended wide swath mode in both VV- and VH-polarizations, whereas the IWRAP C-band radar was configured to measure all of VV-, VH-, and HH-polarizations. IWRAP and Sentinel-1B VV and VH normalized radar cross section (NRCS) at the same Earthincidence angle along the flight path match reasonably well during the entire flight, but some additional trends between aircraft and satellite can be observed. IWRAP VV-polarized NRCS generally match the CMOD5.h geophysical model function (GMF), suggesting errors in the Sentinel-1B processing chain.

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Sapp Joseph W., Mouche Alexis, Jelenak Zorana, Chang Paul S., Frasier Stephen J. (2020). Comparison of the Sentinel-1B Synthetic Aperture Radar With Airborne Microwave Sensors in an Extra-Tropical Cyclone. Ieee Transactions On Geoscience And Remote Sensing, 58(7), 4721-4729. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2020.2966332 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00640/75251/