Microwave Active/Passive Measurements of Diurnal Ocean Wind Vector from TRMM

This paper presents diurnal ocean vector wind measurements derived using the Precipitation Radar (PR) and the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) remote sensors on the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM). An active/passive OVW retrieval algorithm is described, and comparisons of TRMM OVW measurements with collocated nature runs GDAS wind vector retrievals are shown. Flying in a low-earth non-sun synchronous orbit, this remote sensing system provides full diurnal sampling of ocean winds between ±35° latitude every 23 days.