Statistical Modeling of Spaceborne Scatterometer Measurements

Satellite scatterometers have gained in popularity recentJy due to expanded application of their data. New instruments are being developed which oversample the surface to improve the resolution of data, furthering application development. Such oversampling introduces the possibility of correlation between measurements, an issue which has previously been irrelevant due to the lower sampling rates of past instruments. This paper derives a mathematical expression for correlation between consecutive scatterometer measurements. Since measurement correlation is dependent upon instrument configuration, a general methodology is presented so that the algorithm can be adapted to specific instruments. An analysis of the expressions is provided. An adaptation of correlation effects on NASA's most recent scatterometer, Sea Winds, is provided.