ASCAT scatterometer ocean calibration

• Published in: 2007 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium
• Main Authors: Portabella, Marcos, Stoffelen, Ad, Verspeek, Jeroen, Verhoef, Anton, Vogelzang, J.
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 2007
• Subjects: Sea ice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/81345; https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS.2007.4423361

2007 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 23-28 July 2007, Barcelona The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) is responsible for the absolute calibration of the new Advanced scatterometer (ASCAT), onboard MetOp-A, which mainly relies on the use of transponders. An alternative calibration method, which uses scatterometer measurements over the ocean, is presented here. The method is based on the knowledge of the backscatter signal modulation by the ocean surface, which is derived from previous C-band scatterometer missions, and on the use of numerical weather prediction wind output as calibration reference. The method proves to be very useful in providing guidance to EUMETSAT calibration efforts and provides continuity of the C- band scatterometers. Moreover, the ocean calibration results in very good quality winds. As such, within the framework of the EUMETSAT Ocean & Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute has released a demonstration ASCAT 25-km wind product, which is available at http ://www.knmi.nl/scatterometer since 28 March 2007 Peer Reviewed