Wind direction determination with Radarsat2 polarimetric images

In SAR images of the sea surface, the determination of the wind direction is crucial for the evaluation of the associated wind speed. One of the few methods able to extract the wind direction from SAR data has been developed in past years using the twodimensional wavelet transform [1,2]. This method, extensively used with Envisat ASAR images, has been applied to Radarsat-2 fully polarimetric images, to understand if and how polarization may be used to detect the backscatter cells related to locally coherent wind cells. The interpretation of SAR images of the sea surface is still difficult, due to the complexity of the geophysics and of the interaction mechanism of electromagnetic and sea waves. This study aims investigating how polarimetry may be used in this context.