Polarimetric Analysis of Scatterometer Data for Ocean Surface Wind Measurement

An experiment using a polarimetric scatterometer (POLSCAT) has been conducted by JPL for ocean surface wind measurement. It shows that (sigma) (subscript)0 values for HH, W, HV, and VH have the property of even symmetry with respect to the upwind direction, and correlation coefficients between co- and cross-polarizations have the odd symmetry property. In this paper, the symmetry properties will be further examined using polarimetric analysis to investigate the depolarization effect, the scattering mechanism, and the polarization orientation angle. Theoretical results based on a two scale model are used to verify the derived experiment results. The newly derived symmetry property has the potential to solve the 180(deg) ambiguity in wind direction, and to enhance the accuracy of wind vector measurements.