Retrieval of Wind and Total Surface Current Vectors Using Experimental Bidirectional Along-Track Interferometric TanDEM-X Data

Abstract

Observations of wind-and ocean surface velocity vectors by Along-Track Interferometry (ATI) with the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) are not only important for direct applications, but also to increase understandings of ocean upper-layer mixing, air-ocean interactions, and mapping submesoscale (1-10 km) structures. Experimental Bidirectional(BiDi) ATI acquisition mode of TanDEM-X observes with two squinted beams separated by an angle of approximately 13.2 degree in azimuth on the ground. The baseline is very short, and the ATI phase of the ocean surface in line-of-sight direction of the beams can be interpreted as a total Doppler velocity. The 2-dimensional Doppler velocity field will thus include wind wave detected motions. In this paper, Doppler velocity fields acquired from this experimental acquisition mode are presented. The sequential retrieval of wind-and total surface current vectors is demonstrated on the bidirectional TanDEM-X data. The retrieval algorithm builds on existing Geophysical Model Functions (GMF) of NRCS and Doppler velocity. XMOD2 and a GMF based on the Elfouhaily Ocean Wave Spectrum coupled with a Kirchhoff Approximation (EOWS&KA) are used respectively. The retrieved wind fields are generally consistent with ECMWF ERA-5. Where the ATI phase errors are small, the retrieved TSCV field looks promising. Acquisitions were located at sea over the tip of the Novaya Zemlya in Russia and over an area near Tromsø, Norway.