A simulation study on remote sensing of quasi-Gaussian sea wave slopes by the wave scatterometer SWIM

Abstract

Knowledge of the distribution of wave slopes in the sea is important for understanding a number of processes occurring at or near the air-sea interface. The sea slope probability density function (pdf) of sea waves is quasi-Gaussian, being able to be expressed as a Gram-Charlier expansion to fourth-order. However, the method is absent for remote sensing the sea slope pdf in a large scale. SWIM (Surface Waves Investigation and Monitoring), used on the CFOSAT (China-France Oceanography Satellite) mission, the first space borne wave scatterometer in the world can obtain two dimensional (2D) scattering measurements of sea surface in the incidence and azimuth direction with high resolution, which made it possible to measure 2D slope pdf with high accuracy. In the paper, the feasibility of remote sensing quasi-Gaussian sea slope by SWIM is studied by the simulation.