Remote sensing of the ocean surface with C- and Ku-band airborne scatterometers

A novel dual-mode microwave scatterometer system has been designed and fabricated for remote sensing. This dissertation describes the sensor and presents unique C- and Ku-band ocean surface radar backscatter measurements obtained with it during flights on NASA C-130 and P-3 aircraft. Anisotropic C-band normalized radar cross section measurements obtained for a limited range of ocean surface windspeeds with a spinning antenna are presented. These measurements are potentially free of errors that corrupt similar measurements made with fixed-azimuth airborne scatterometers during "circle-flights". Also presented, for the first time, are open-ocean observations of the electromagnetic (EM) bias at C- and Ku-bands.