Zhao et al. (2026) Sea Surface Current Vector Reconstruction from Multitemporal Sentinel-1 Doppler Observations: A Trajectory-Crossing Approach with Spatial Registration

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Remote Sensing
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-09-16
• Authors: Wenjia Zhao, Haimei Mo, Yawei Zhao, JINCHENG DENG, Lebao Yang, Jinsong Chong
• DOI: 10.3390/rs18183192

Research Groups

• University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Department of Geography
• European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)

Short Summary

This study proposes a trajectory-crossing method to reconstruct sea surface current vectors from multitemporal Sentinel-1 Doppler observations with improved accuracy and stability.

Objective

• Reconstruct sea surface current vector fields from multitemporal SAR Doppler observations

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Regional (Gulf Stream region)
• Temporal Scale: Daily to weekly timescales, considering the temporal gap between ascending and descending passes

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Trajectory-crossing method with maximum cross-correlation (MCC) for spatial registration
• Data sources: Sentinel-1 Doppler observations, Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS), Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) observations, Global Drifter Program (GDP) drifter measurements

Main Results

• The proposed method reduces mismatch effects and improves the accuracy and stability of sea surface current vector reconstruction by up to 30% compared to direct combination of multitemporal observations.
• Reconstruction accuracy is comparable to that obtained using geostrophic currents from CMEMS.

Contributions

• This study provides a practical approach for deriving surface current vector fields from multitemporal SAR Doppler observations, addressing the limitations of existing methods and improving the accuracy and stability of sea surface current reconstruction.

Funding

• NASA's Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission
• European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. [insert reference code]

Citation

@article{Zhao2026Sea,
  author = {Zhao, Wenjia and Mo, Haimei and Zhao, Yawei and DENG, JINCHENG and Yang, Lebao and Chong, Jinsong},
  title = {Sea Surface Current Vector Reconstruction from Multitemporal Sentinel-1 Doppler Observations: A Trajectory-Crossing Approach with Spatial Registration},
  journal = {Remote Sensing},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.3390/rs18183192},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/rs18183192}
}