BackBack to listForwardSea-surface wind by active and passive MW 

Details on this mission type
Full name Sea-surface wind by active and passive MW
Definition This type of mission designates radar scatterometers that provide backscatter coefficient observations under a number of viewing angles. Another technique makes use of passive MW imagers exploiting several polarisations (up to full-polarisation) at different frequencies.
Relevant instruments and their contribution

The sorting column describes how the instruments, by design, have the potential to contribute to certain pre-determined capabilities, assuming nominal operation of space and ground segments. For this particular capability, instrument performance is considered to be driven by:

  • the band used for the radar scatterometer (C-band and/or Ku-band);
  • the scanning mechanism to provide differential sigma-noughts under different viewing angles;
  • the number of polarisations used by MW radiometers.

 Sorting criteria and colour code:

  1. Radar scatterometer operating in C-band (~5.3 GHz) AND/OR Ku-band (~13.3 GHz).
  2. Polarimetric MW radiometer operating at ~10, ~19 and ~37 GHz.
  3. Conical scanning MW radiometer with >=2 channels (one 2-pol frequency) on one or more of the frequencies ~7, ~10, ~19 and ~37 GHz.
  4. Radar altimeter, nadir-pointing OR with large swath.
  5. System of GNSS receivers embarked on a cluster of dedicated micro-satellites.