Evaluation of a compound probability model with tower-mounted scatterometer data

Six months of data from the YSCAT94 experiment conducted at the CCIW WAVES research platform on Lake Ontario, Canada, are analyzed to evaluate a compound probability model. YSCAT was an ultrawideband small footprint (/spl ap/1 m) microwave scatterometer that operated at frequencies of 2-18 GHz, incidence angles from 0/spl deg/ to 60/spl deg/, both h-pol and v-pol, and which tracked the wind using simultaneous weather measurements. The probability distribution function of the measured instantaneous backscattered amplitude (p(a)) is compared to theoretical distributions developed from-the composite model and a simple wave spectrum. Model parameters of the resulting Rayleigh/generalized lognormal distribution probability density function (pdf) (C, a/sub 1/, and a/sub 2/) are derived directly from the data and are found to demonstrate relationships with wind speed, incidence angle, and radar frequency.