
doi: 10.5772/9102
Scatterometers are non-imaging active sensors used to measure the intensity of microwave backscatter while scanning the surface of the earth from an aircraft or a satellite. Active microwave sensors are radars providing their own illumination and do not depend upon ambient radiation like passive microwave sensors. They transmit microwave electromagnetic pulses toward the surface and measure how much of that signals return after interacting with the target. Scatterometer is a form of radar that is used to investigate different geophysical properties of the surface and few centimeters beneath. Spaceborne scatterometers have the advantage of providing global coverage on a continuous basis, which cannot be achieved through airborne or ground measurements. They have the capability of providing day and night time measurements unaffected by cloud cover. Scatterometers were originally designed to study ocean winds but have been also used to study of cryosphere, vegetation, and soil surface properties. A number of scatterometers have been flown on space missions since the early 1970s. The first scatterometer in space was a Ku-band instrument on Skylab mission. Investigations on the potential use of scatterometers in geosciences achieved a major technical milestone with the launch of Seasat, carrying a Ku-band scatterometer (SASS), in 1978. Other missions have followed SASS; C-band scatterometers onboard the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Earth Remote Sensing (ERS 1 & ERS-2) satellites in 1991 and 1995, the NASA’s Ku-band scatterometer (NSCAT) in 1996, SeaWinds on QuikSCAT in 1999, SeaWinds on ADEOS-II in 2002, and Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) onboard Metop-A launched in 2006. In this study we focus on spaceborne C-band scatterometers and present an overview of their applications in geoscience.
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