Influences of Two-Scale Roughness Parameters on the Ocean Surface Emissivity From Satellite Passive Microwave Measurements

• Published in: IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing Vol. 60; pp. 1 - 12
• Main Authors: Lee, Sang-Moo, Gasiewski, Albin J., Sohn, Byung-Ju
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 2022; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Approximation; Coefficients; Correlation coefficient; Correlation coefficients; Emissivity; Flat surfaces; Formulas (mathematics); Incidence angle; large-scale roughness; Mathematical model; Mathematical models; microwave; Microwave theory and techniques; ocean; Ocean surface; Ocean temperature; Ocean waves; Parameter estimation; Parameterization; Parameters; passive microwave remote sensing; Rough surfaces; Roughness; Scattering functions; Sea surface; small-scale roughness; Surface properties; Surface roughness; Surface waves; Water surface slope; Wave height; Wind; Wind speed
• ISSN: 0196-2892; 1558-0644
• DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2021.3105915

In this study, a method for estimating two-scale roughness influences on the ocean surface emissivity is developed by solving a simplified two-scale ocean emissivity model equation. In this model, scatterings by small-scale roughness are described by the Kirchhoff approximation. For large-scale roughness, the mean local incidence angle (LIA) is introduced to describe slanted surface slope deviation from flat surface. This study focuses on the ocean state under low/moderate wind conditions in order to preclude foam and anisotropic influences within the model. Consequently, a unique pair of two-scale roughness parameters are estimated from the equation using observed ocean emissivities from AMSR2-measured radiances. The results show that the estimated small-scale roughness at 6.925 and 10.65 GHz is linearly correlated with the 10-m height wind speed <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">U_{10} </tex-math></inline-formula>. As the frequency reaches 36.5 GHz, however, the scatters between small-scale roughness and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">U_{10} </tex-math></inline-formula> are increased, which suggests that the Kirchhoff bistatic scattering function is not fully suitable to describe the small-scale roughness at this frequency. The linear relationships between mean LIA and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">U_{10} </tex-math></inline-formula> are found with high correlation coefficients. In addition, the estimated mean LIA corresponds well with associated roughness calculated from both observed and modeled ocean wave height spectra. This evidence demonstrates that the proposed large-scale roughness parameterization is physically meaningful and, therefore, the mean LIA has a physical basis in large-scale roughness. In addition, the strong correlations between the roughness parameters and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">U_{10} </tex-math></inline-formula> demonstrate the possibility to estimate <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">U_{10} </tex-math></inline-formula> from the AMSR2 data using intermediate parameters that are physically based on ocean surface characteristics.