FULLY AND NONFULLY DEVELOPED SEA MODELS FOR MICROWAVE REMOTE-SENSING APPLICATIONS

A new statistical description of the ocean surface is proposed and described. Classically it is assumed that the spectrum of the surface vertical displacements depends only on one external, or forcing parameter-the wind speed (or the wind friction velocity); this is, true for fully developed sea states only. In the more general case of nonfully developed sea states, the spectrum should depend as well on internal parameters describing the characteristic features of the surface. Such a representation is discussed in this article for applications to active and passive microwave remote sensing of the oceans.