Science Meetings

Dielectric Constant Retrieved from SMOS Multiangular Measurements: the Cardioid Model (Poster)
Boutin, J.J., Vergely, J.L., Waldteufel P., Spurgeon, P., Dinnat, E., and Zhou, Y. (23-May-17)

Sea surface salinity (SSS) retrieved from L-band radiometry strongly depends on the formulation chosen for modeling the dielectric constant of sea water. Recent laboratory measurements of Lang et al (2016) indicate some differences at very low and very high SST with respect to the dielectric constant models of Klein and Swift (1977) (KS) and Meissner and Wentz (2012) (MW), respectively used for professing the SMOS and Aquarius/SMAP data. In this poster, we compare information on the dielectric constant retrieved from the angular variation of SMOS brightness temperatures with KS and MW models and with interpolated Lang measurements. We find that in cold waters, SMOS measurements are closer to the latter than to the KS parameterization. In warm waters, further analysis involving SSS variations will be necessary to identify causes for the large scattering.