Performances of the Rotating Fanbeam Scatterometer on Cfosat

The Ku-band rotating fan-beam scatterometer (RFSCAT) onboard the China-France Oceanography Satellite (CFOSAT) is dedicated to the measurement of sea surface wind vectors. The flight model of RFSCAT has been assembled and tested, and the data processing algorithms have been developed. This paper provides an overview of the design and characteristics of RFSCAT instrument, and then a prelaunch analysis is carried out to estimate the scatterometer backscatter and wind accuracy. The overall study includes two parts: first, a forward model is developed to simulate the ocean backscatter signals under certain wind conditions; second, a wind inversion processor is used to retrieve sea surface wind vectors from the outputs of the forward model. Simulations show that the backscatter accuracy and the retrieved wind quality of RFSCAT are quite promising and meet the scientific requirements of the mission.

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