Studying the azimuthal dependence of the sea surface microwave emissions based on measurements at the Black Sea

Abstract

In this work, a comparative analysis of experimental measurements of the azimuthal anisotropy of microwave radiation from a rough water surface is carried out. A large set of experimental data was obtained during experiments aimed on study of the interaction between the water surface and the atmosphere using microwave radiometers. The experiments were carried out on the oceanographic platform of the Black Sea Hydrophysical Testing Ground of the Russian Academy of Science in the period from 2005 to 2019. Over the years, the set of radiometric instruments changed, but radiometers with a frequency of about 36 GHz were used in each experiment, so the results are presented specifically for this frequency. A qualitative comparison of the measurement results with model calculations and other experimental studies of anisotropy are carried out. It is shown that there is a strong sensitivity of changes in the radio emission of a rough water surface, both to the wind speed and to its direction at different incidence angles.