Windsat Validation Using Seawinds, Windrad and POLSCAT Measurements

Global mapping of near surface ocean wind vectors is crucial for many oceanographic and atmospheric studies. The US Navy together with the National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) launched the Windsat with multi-frequency polarimetric radiometers in January 2003 to demonstrate the passive polarimetry for large spatial coverage of ocean surface wind vector measurements from space. We derived the geophysical model function (GMF) for Windsat polarimetric brightness temperature measurements using six months of matchup dataset. The Windsat GMF was compared with the aircraft radiometer and radar measurements and the SeaWinds scatterometer winds with good agreement up to about 20 m/s wind speed.