Abstract: Theory, characteristics and shortcomings of traditional wind vector algorithm are analyzed in the beginning of this paper, and then, a new wind vector algorithm in scanning mode is delivered. The correlation of ocean wave in two neighboring scanning period Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images is discussed, and the wind direction is determined by displacement vector of the wind-induced streaks using gray cross-correlation. Eventually, the GMF (Geophysical Model Function) is adopted to estimate the wind speed. Compared with traditional wind vector algorithm and wind measurement from buoy, the new algorithm, which has no problem with the wind direction ambiguity, is more accurate. The processing results of real airborne radar data prove the effectiveness of the algorithm.