Investigation of near surface wind by optical images of wind-roughened water surface

Abstract

The method of retrieval of wind speed from sea surface image under diffuse sky illumination is developed. The method consists of two stages: firstly the rms slope is determined by fitting modeled radiance with sought rms slope to measured sea surface radiance and secondly wind speed is determined using the Cox and Munk relation between mean square slope and wind speed. An analytical model of sea surface radiance for visible light is developed taking into account shadowing of surface waves for grazing view geometry. The method was applied to investigation of the structure of near surface wind fields in сatabatic wind flows for ranges from hundreds meters to ten kilometers.