Identifiability in wind estimation from scatterometer measurements

The problem of identifiability of a wind vector that is estimated from wind scatterometer measurements of the radar backscatter of the ocean's surface is addressed. The traditional wind estimation approach produces multiple estimates of the wind direction. A second processing step, known as dealiasing or ambiguity removal, is used to select a single wind estimate from these multiple solutions. Dealiasing is typically based on various ad hoc considerations. The traditional wind estimation approach results in multiple solutions associated with local minima in an objective function formed from the noisy backscatter measurements. The authors discuss the question of the uniqueness of the wind vector estimates resulting from this intuitive approach. >