Developments in Using GPS for Oceanographic Remote Sensing: Retrieval of Ocean Surface Wind Speed and Wind Direction

Global Positioning System (GPS) signals reflected from the ocean surface have potential use for various remote sensing purposes. Some possibilities are measurements of surface roughness characteristics from which wave height, wind speed and direction could be determined. In this paper, recent reflected GPS measurements collected via aircraft with a delay mapping GPS receiver, are used to explore the possibility of determining ocean surface wind speed and direction during Hurricanes Michael and Keith in October, 2000. To interpret the GPS data, a theoretical model is used to describe the correlation power of the reflected GPS signals for different time delays as a function of geometrical and environmental parameters. Wind direction estimates are based on a multiple satellite non-linear least squares solution. The estimated wind speed using surface-reflected GPS data collected at a variety of wind speed conditions shows an overall agreement better than 2 m/s with data obtained from

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