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Calibration, Scatterometers

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Encyclopedia of Remote Sensing

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Definitions

Radar scatterometer. A calibrated radar designed to measure the radar backscatter cross section of a target, which is generally an area on the earth’s surface.

Wind scatterometer. A scatterometer designed to measure the ocean’s surface backscatter at multiple azimuth angles in order to estimate the near-surface vector wind. It is also used for ice melt/freeze, soil moisture, and vegetation remote sensing.

Normalized radar cross section. Area-normalized radar backscatter, which is the ratio of the incident and reflected radar signal power. Equivalent to the radar albedo. Often represented by σo or sigma-o.

Geophysical model function (GMF). An empirical or analytic relationship between radar backscatter and geophysical quantity, that is, sigma-o is a function of the vector wind, polarization, and other parameters,

$$ {\upsigma^{\mathrm{ o}}}=F\left( {S,\chi, p,\ldots } \right) $$

where S is the neutral-stability wind speed (typically at 10 m height), χis the relative angle...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, BYU Center for Remote Sensing, Brigham Young University, 459 Clyde Building, 84602, Provo, UT, USA

    David Long

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  1. David Long
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Correspondence to David Long .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA

    Eni G. Njoku

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Long, D. (2014). Calibration, Scatterometers. In: Njoku, E.G. (eds) Encyclopedia of Remote Sensing. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-36699-9_14

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