Polarized microwave emission from water waves

Partially polarimetric measurements of thermal emission from a striated water surface at 91.65 GHz illustrate the potential for remote sensing of water wave direction by passive microwave radiometry. The three Stokes parameter measurements were made using a precision polarimetric radiometer trained on a rotatable water wave tank at several elevation angles from near nadir to near grazing. The polarimetric measurements are well corroborated by calculations using a tilted-facet geometrical optics model for the water surface emission and scattering. Multiple scattering of the incident background radiation is incorporated for observation angles approaching grazing. The downwelling background brightness is computed by using an atmospheric radiative transfer model. We show that azimuthal brightness variations in the third Stokes parameter are in phase quadrature with the first and second modified Stokes parameters. For observation angles near ∼60°–70° from nadir the first three parameters have particularly large azimuthal brightness variations and thus have significant potential for measuring ocean wave direction. Moreover, the azimuthal brightness variations caused by water waves are not negligible for many passive microwave atmospheric sounding and surface remote sensing purposes, even at nadir. A range of elevation angles resulting in minimal azimuthal variations is identified.

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