The Naval Research Laboratory's air-sea interaction blimp experiment

Abstract

The rationale is given for a unique experiment in which microwave scatterometer and surface flux measurements are to be made from a blimp to develop an improved scatterometer model function. A principal goal of the effort is to obtain a more accurate understanding of the relationship between the surface fluxes and the microwave power backscattered from the surface of the ocean. Evidence shows that if direct surface flux measurements are to be accurate to better than 20%, the measurements should be made at an altitude of about 5 m to 10 m from a platform that is free of flow distortion. It is concluded that scatterometer measurements must be made from a platform that is highly mobile and which enables the measurements to be made over a variety of oceanic conditions. -from Authors