Wind Direction Estimation and Accuracy Retrieval from Sentinel-1 SAR Images Under Thermal and Dynamical Unstable Conditions

Romain Husson, Nicolas Longépé, Alexis Mouche, Henrick Berger, Chunze Lin, Olivier Archer, Aurélien Colin

Abstract: Windrows signatures on SAR images are analyzed to estimate their orientation and their estimated accuracy with respect to reference wind direction provided by buoy and model. The accuracy dependency to several parameters of interest such as wind speed, processing internal variables, incidence angle, a priori presence of wind streaks but also SAR product acquisition modes and polarizations is analyzed. Regression models provide a satisfying method to combine these parameters and predict the a priori error on the estimated wind direction, crucial for any downstream application.