Taking advantage of Sentinel-1 acquisition modes to improve ocean sea state retrieval

Abstract

Sentinel-1's SAR instrument offers a number of improvements with respect to its predecessor ENVISAT/ASAR such as a much better Wave Mode imagette coverage, improved Doppler estimator allowing higher resolution Doppler grid, more systematic dual-polarizations and a new TOPSAR acquisition mode. In the context of SEOM program, the Sentinel-1 ocean study offers to take advantage of these new capabilities to improve the retrieval of ocean sea state parameters: surface wind fields, directional wave spectrum, total significant wave height and surface currents. The study also tackles the ability to conduct a synergetic retrieval scheme in which the mutual effects of sea state components are taken into account.