Advanced design concepts for a SeaWinds scatterometer follow-on mission

The SeaWinds wind scatterometer was first launched in June of 1999, and has contributed significantly to the study of global climate phenomena and to the fidelity of operational weather forecasting. A second SeaWinds instrument is planned to be launched aboard the Japanese ADEOS-II platform in late 2001, and operate until mid-decade. To extend the important Ku-Band scatterometer data base to the end of the decade and beyond, a follow-on system to the SeaWinds series of scatterometers is being developed. The goals for this system are to continue the core Ku-Band backscatter measurement, to further improve spacecraft accommodation constraints so as to be easily operated on a variety of platforms, and-where possible under existing cost constraints-improve wind retrieval performance. It is shown that a system, which meets these objectives, can be achieved by the addition of polarimetric measurement capability to the existing SeaWinds approach. Polarimetric scatterometry is demonstrated to improve wind measurement performance without impacting instrument complexity or cost, and has the long term potential to further ease spacecraft accommodation requirements.