An improved model for the dielectric constant of sea water at microwave frequencies

Abstract

The advent of precision microwave radiometry has placed a stringent requirement on the accuracy with which the dielectric constant of sea water must be known. To this end, measurements of the dielectric constant have been conducted at <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">S</tex> -band and <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">L</tex> -band with a quoted uncertainty of tenths of a percent. These and earlier results are critically examined, and expressions are developed which will yield computations of brightness temperature having an error of no more than 0.3 K for an undisturbed sea at frequencies lower than <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">X</tex> -band. At the higher microwave and millimeter wave frequencies, the accuracy is in question because of uncertainties in the relaxation time and the dielectric constant at infinite frequency.