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- Title
Advanced View at the Ocean Surface.
- Authors
Panfilova, M.; Karaev, V.; Mitnik, L.; Titchenko, Y.; Ryabkova, M.; Meshkov, E.
- Abstract
Improvement of methods for satellite monitoring of the world ocean state is one of the most important areas of the remote sensing because of the influence the oceans have on the Earth's climate. Currently, only one parameter is measured on a regular basis on a global scale: the significant wave height which is obtained from spaceborne radar altimeter data. It is known that at small incidence angles within the framework of Kirchhoff approximation, the backscattering radar cross section depends mainly on the mean square slope (mss) of the sea surface; therefore, this parameter can be measured. The performed studies lead to the improvement of the methods for processing the data from a precipitation radar. We demonstrate that the mss of the large‐scale (compared to the radar wavelength) sea waves can be restored within the swath, that is, about 115 km wide. The aim of this work is to communicate these new possibilities to the broad research community involved in the studies of the oceans. In this paper, a review of the results is performed and the prospects for global monitoring are first shown. On the basis of the precipitation radar data, it becomes possible to measure global fields of sea wave slopes, which in turn will help scientists to analyze the processes of air‐sea interaction. Availability of this new mss parameter essentially doubles the amount of available descriptors of sea waves, which will advance the understanding of the processes occurring in the oceans. Plain Language Summary: Radar remote sensing is a powerful instrument for investigation and monitoring of the world ocean. At present, only one parameter which characterizes the sea surface is measured by orbital radars at regular base. It is a significant wave height which is measured by altimeter. We suggest using and analyzing the second parameter in the ocean‐related research. It is a mean square slope (mss). Information on the mss of sea waves can be determined from precipitation radar data (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and Global Precipitation Measurement satellites). The emergence of this new global‐scale information about sea waves will be useful for studies of how various processes occurring on or near the ocean surface (convective cells, sea currents, cyclones, atmospheric fronts, etc.) manifest themselves in the mss field. In addition, precipitation radar data can be used to map the ice cover, which is also an important task. Another significant advantage is that the precipitation radar has been taking measurements since 1997, and to date, a huge array of data has been accumulated. Therefore, scientists have information available that can be used to solve a wide range of problems and study the phenomena that have occurred in the oceans over the past 20 years. Key Points: Scattering electromagnetic waves at small incidence angles is described in the Kirchhoff approximation and depends on mean square slopesPrecipitation radar measures backscattering at small incidence angles and the developed algorithms retrieve mean square slopes of sea wavesSwath width is approximately 115 km, and this can be used for the analysis of large spatial processes related to air‐sea interactions
- Subjects
OCEAN surface topography; OCEAN dynamics; MARINE geophysics; BIOGEOCHEMICAL cycles; SPACE-based radar
- Publication
Journal of Geophysical Research. Oceans, 2020, Vol 125, Issue 11, p1
- ISSN
2169-9275
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1029/2020JC016531