NASA Scatterometer measurements of ocean surface winds in tropical cyclones

The NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) has obtained realistic measurements of ocean surface winds in hurricanes and typhoons using an improved wind retrieval algorithm. This Spatial Adaptive Retrieval Algorithm (SARA) retrieves wind speeds at each scatterometer backscatter measurement location using an estimate of the wind direction from conventional NSCAT wind vector processing or using directions from a tropical cyclone surface wind numerical model. Also, SARA uses an improved geophysical model function, that has been especially adapted for high wind speeds, to relate the ocean's normalized radar cross section, sigma-0, and the ocean surface wind vector.