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WSCATT - Wind Scatterometer
The purpose of the Wind Scatterometer is to obtain information on wind speed and direction at the sea surface for incorporation into models, global statistics and climatological datasets.
It operates by recording the change in radar reflectivity of the sea due to the perturbation of small ripples by the wind close to the surface.
This is possible because the radar backscatter returned to the satellite is modified by wind-driven ripples on the ocean surface and, since the energy in these ripples increases with wind velocity, backscatter increases with wind velocity.