Assessment of Sun-glint Effects on PLMR Measurements Over Land and Water During NAFE Campaings
M.J. Escorihuela, Y. Kerr, K. Saleh, J.P. Walker, P. Steinle and J.P. Wigneron
An objective of the NAFE campaign was to address specific questions of interest to preparation of the SMOS retrieval algorithm. One of the open issues regarding surface emission at L-band is the impact of sun reflection over the different surfaces, known as sun-glint. The sun is an important emitter at L-band and therefore its reflection over the different surfaces might have an impact on the overall emission received by the radiometer. However, few studies have addressed this issue. This study quantifies the effects of sunglint over different surfaces, including water, dry soil, wet soil and forest, for the different zenith and azimuth angular configurations.