Singh et al. (2025) Evolution of scatterometers in earth observations: A tutorial on products, applications and algorithms

Identification

• Journal: Elsevier eBooks
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-11-14
• Authors: Sartajvir Singh, Reet Kamal Tiwari, Vishakha Sood, Neelam Dahiya, Gurwinder Singh, Apoorva Sharma, Ravneet Kaur
• DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-443-31380-6.00014-3

Research Groups

• Centre of Excellence, Socio-Environmental Sustainability for River Sand Mining (SEnSRS), Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar, Punjab, India
• Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar, Punjab, India
• Department of Computer Applications, Chitkara University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Rajpura, Punjab, India
• Department of Computer Application, Chandigarh School of Business, Chandigarh Group of Colleges, Mohali, Punjab, India
• Advanced Centre of Research & Innovation, Chandigarh Group of Colleges, Mohali, Punjab, India
• APEX Institute of Technology (AIT), Department of Computer Science Engineering, Chandigarh University, Mohali, Punjab, India

Short Summary

This tutorial paper provides a comprehensive overview of scatterometers, detailing their evolution, operational principles, data products (like sigma-nought), and diverse applications across oceanography, hydrology, and cryosphere studies.

Objective

• To provide a tutorial on the evolution of scatterometers in Earth observations, explaining their products, applications, and underlying algorithms.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global (covering land, oceans, and polar regions).
• Temporal Scale: Continuous, all-weather, day-and-night measurements (referring to the capabilities of scatterometers discussed).

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Not applicable, as this is a tutorial/review paper and does not present new modeling work.
• Data sources: The paper discusses scatterometer data, specifically backscattered microwaves and the derived sigma-nought parameter, which are utilized in various Earth observation applications.

Main Results

• Scatterometers are radar instruments that measure backscattered microwaves (sigma-nought) from the Earth's surface.
• Sigma-nought is a dimensionless parameter quantifying surface scattering efficiency, influenced by surface roughness, dielectric properties, and incidence angle.
• Scatterometer data are crucial for oceanography, hydrology, and cryosphere studies, offering all-weather, day-and-night measurements globally, including polar regions for sea-ice extent mapping, melt onset, motion tracking, and classification.
• Two primary operational bands, C-band (approximately 5 GHz) and Ku-band (approximately 13 GHz), offer distinct advantages in terms of penetration, weather sensitivity, and spatial resolution for various applications.

Contributions

• This tutorial synthesizes existing knowledge on scatterometer technology, data products, and diverse applications, providing a foundational understanding of their role in Earth observation.

Funding

• Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Singh2025Evolution,
  author = {Singh, Sartajvir and Tiwari, Reet Kamal and Sood, Vishakha and Dahiya, Neelam and Singh, Gurwinder and Sharma, Apoorva and Kaur, Ravneet},
  title = {Evolution of scatterometers in earth observations: A tutorial on products, applications and algorithms},
  journal = {Elsevier eBooks},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1016/b978-0-443-31380-6.00014-3},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-443-31380-6.00014-3}
}