Some considerations about the in-orbit calibration of spaceborne rotating fan beam radar scatterometer

Rotating fan-beam scatterometer (RFSCAT) is a new kind of spaceborne scatterometer for ocean surface vector wind (OSVW) measurement. In this paper, some consideration about the calibration of a Ku-band RFSCAT is presented. Both internal calibration and external calibration are described. Preliminary analyses about the internal calibration precision and external calibration accuracy are presented. Based on the method of Long, et al, external calibration method for RFSCAT is proposed. Some simulation results for the external calibration with natural extended targets, such as Amazon forest, are presented.