The ERS Scatterometer instrument and the On-Ground processing of its Data

More recently it has been found that scatterometer data are also very valuable for land, snow and ice applications. Parameters like surface moisture, sea ice concentrations, sea ice age and snow conditions could be successfully retrieved using scatterometer data. Particularly promising is the derivation of sea ice masks based on the polarization ratios of the scatterometer data (for NSCAT) and on the different backscatter level behaviour at different incidence angles (for ERS scatterometer), which compare well to similar products derived from SSM/I data. Over land, studies are showing the usefulness of scatterometer data to determine the impact of a lack of rain fall in sahelian areas an can help in having an early drought warning in these regions.