XMOD2 - An improved geophysical model function to retrieve sea surface wind fields from Cosmo-SkyMed X-band data

This paper presents a semi-empirical geophysical model function to retrieve wind fields from SAR data acquired by the Italian satellite constellation COSMO-SkyMed (CSK). The model is suitable for X-band data with vertical VV polarization. A data set of more than 300 CSK images has been used for the model coefficients estimation. QuikSCAT and Global Forecast System analysis data have been used for model development. The validation of the results has been carried out with a new data set of 24 images acquired over three oceanographic buoys. The agreement between the wind model and in situ data is quite satisfactory. We consider the present results adequate for a large variety of applications.