Open AccessSea surface slope statistics derived from Sun glint radiance measurements and their apparent dependence on sensor elevation
Author(s) -
Ross Vincent,
Dion Denis
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: oceans
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2007jc004137
Subject(s) - radiance , bidirectional reflectance distribution function , elevation (ballistics) , remote sensing , specular reflection , geology , wind speed , range (aeronautics) , surface (topology) , environmental science , geodesy , meteorology , geometry , optics , physics , reflectivity , mathematics , materials science , composite material
Sea surface slope variances are obtained by inverting narrowband (444, 501, 677, and 864 nm) Sun glint radiance measurements using a detailed analytical specular sea surface bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) that includes mutual wave shadowing and hiding. The resulting data set spans a wide range of environmental conditions including wind speeds from 0.5 to 13.5 m s −1 and many different viewing and source geometries. Analysis against wind speed and atmospheric stability produces trends similar to those found in previous studies, as well as finer tendencies that were formerly difficult to detect. Furthermore, the detailed nature of the BRDF model used in the analysis permits an investigation of the correlation of the statistics with viewing geometry, revealing a strong relationship between sensor elevation and measured slope variance, especially at grazing angles.