THE CALIBRATION OF ERS-1 SCATTEROMETER WINDS

The European Remote Sensing satellite, ERS-1, was launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) on 17 July 1991. One of its instruments, the Wind Scatterometer, is a radar system from which measurements of near-surface wind vectors can be derived. During the Autumn of 1991, ESA coordinated a campaign of in situ wind measurements in order to calibrate this instrument. This paper gives a brief description of the campaign, the data resulting from it, and how the in situ measurements have been used to improve the quality of the ERS-1 winds.