Passive microwave retrieval of ocean surface windspeeds for British coastal waters

Previous approaches to the estimation of ocean surface windspeeds from passive microwave data have been incapable of providing information within 100 km of a coastline due to land contamination in pixel footprints. This paper describes the application of a brightness-temperature separation method to the computation of Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I)-based estimates of ocean surface windspeed for the littoral zone surrounding the southern part of the British Isles over the three-month period of May-July 1996. When validated against in situ buoy data, the windspeed estimates for the coastal zone displayed broadly similar error characteristics to equivalent estimates made for the open ocean.