Calibration of the Ku-band Rotating Fan-beam Scatterometer Using Land Extended-area Targets

Abstract

Rotating Fan-beam SCATterometer (RFSCAT) is a new radar scatterometer system for ocean surface vector wind measurement. Compared with other available scatterometers, RFSCAT can provide more combination of azimuth and incidence angles for a single surface resolution cell. To achieve the required wind vector accuracy, radar scatterometry measurement of backscattering coefficient (σ0) must be calibrated within a few tenths of a decibel. In this paper, the method for external calibration of RFSCAT is proposed, based on the system parameters of the scatterometer onboard the Chinese French Oceanography SATellite (CFOSAT), and is verified by simulations. Then QuikSCAT L2A data and SIR of several large homogenous areas are analyzed to check the stability and azimuthal dependence of the σ0 over these areas. A new calibration mask is generated and will be used as a reference for the calibration of RFSCAT