Ocean Waves Inversion Based on Airborne Radar Images with Small Incident Angle

The interferometric radar imaging altimeter is one of the main payloads of the "Guanlan" ocean science satellite proposed by the National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology of China. To evaluate the accuracy of the interferometric radar imaging altimeter in retrieving the ocean dynamic parameters, such as sea surface height (SSH), significant wave height (SWH), an airborne interferometric radar imaging altimeter experiment was carried out at Qingdao Xiaomaidao (XMD) sea area on March 31, 2019. In the research work of this paper, SSH and SWH have been retrieved based on the interferograms acquired by the airborne interferometric radar imaging altimeter. The comparisons of the retrieved SWH with the buoy measurements, and the results demonstrate that the difference is small. In addition, the retrieved results also demonstrate that the incident angle error is an important factor affects the accuracy of the retrieved SSH. When the incident angle error is 1°, it can cause a relative error of about 40% at the near range. Through this study, it can be concluded that the interferometric radar imaging altimeter images of "Guanlan" satellite in future can effectively retrieve some ocean wave information.