AEOLUS+ INNOVATION – OCEAN SURFACE WIND FROM AEOLUS SEA SURFACE RETURNS (SEA-FLECT)

Welcome to the SEA-FLECT project page. The winds from Aeolus lidar SEA surface reFLECTance (SEA-FLECT) aims to demonstrate the potential of the Aeolus observations for monitoring of sea surface winds. This project is funded by ESA under the Aeolus + Innovation project.

Objective

The objectives of the Aeolus Ocean Surface Wind project are to

• Demonstrate if the Aeolus observations can be used to derive ocean surface winds, and
• Understand which meteorological and oceanic conditions are favourable to derive this product from the observations

Method

To meet the objectives, we will perform a detailed analysis of the Aeolus surface returns over selected regions, under different surface wind conditions. The surface wind information will be derived from scatterometer data, while the surface conditions will be determined from traditional imagery data as provided by e.g. Modis or Sentinel2. In addition detailed radiative transfer calculations will be performed to support the analysis.