COASTAL WIND FIELDS ALONG THE KOREAN COAST FROM SAR DATA AND AIR-SEA INTERACTION

The SAR-derived wind fields presented the detailed structure of wind fields along the coastal areas, which had heretofore been unobtainable from scatterometer observation. Comparison of the retrieved SAR wind speeds with in-situ buoy wind measurements showed a small difference of less than 1 m/s, which implied that the results of SAR wind retrieval satisfied the limit of accuracy of satellite scatterometry. The retrieved SAR wind fields off the east coast of Korea during August 2007 showed the distinct patterns of low wind along the coastal region. The analysis of SAR wind fields with coincided SST images indicated that these spatial distinctions of SAR wind fields were associated with the upwelling events. Based on wind and SST data from satellite data and in-situ measurements, it was found that the changes in MABL stability caused by upwelling events dominantly generated the variation of SAR wind fields at the coastal regions.