Improved Hurricane Ocean Vector Winds Using SeaWinds Active/Passive Retrievals

The SeaWinds scatterometer, onboard the QuikSCAT satellite, infers global ocean vector winds (OVWs); however, for a number of reasons, these measurements in hurricanes are significantly degraded. This paper presents an improved hurricane OVW retrieval approach, known as Q-Winds, which is derived fro...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing Vol. 48; no. 7; pp. 2909 - 2923
Main Authors:	Laupattarakasem, Peth, Jones, W Linwood, Hennon, Christopher C, Allard, John R, Harless, Amy R, Black, Peter G
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	New York, NY IEEE 01-07-2010 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subjects:	Algorithms Applied geophysics Atmospheric measurements Degradation Earth sciences Earth, ocean, space Exact sciences and technology Geophysical measurements H ^{\ast} Wind hurricane retrieval Hurricanes Internal geophysics Marine geology Mathematical analysis Meteorology Ocean temperature ocean vector wind (OVW) retrieval Oceans QuikSCAT Radar measurements Rain rain correction Retrieval Satellites scatterometer Sea measurements Sea surface SeaWinds Surface wind Vectors (mathematics) Wind atmosphere algorithms models rainfall hurricane retrieval rain correction SeaWinds Space remote sensing QuikSCAT exhibits scatterometer HWind ocean vector wind (OVW) retrieval Q brightness temperature corrections ocean hurricanes winds radar methods storms
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	The SeaWinds scatterometer, onboard the QuikSCAT satellite, infers global ocean vector winds (OVWs); however, for a number of reasons, these measurements in hurricanes are significantly degraded. This paper presents an improved hurricane OVW retrieval approach, known as Q-Winds, which is derived from combined SeaWinds active and passive measurements. In this technique, the effects of rain are implicitly included in a new geophysical model function, which relates oceanic brightness temperature and radar backscatter measurements (at the top of the atmosphere) to the surface wind vector under both clear sky and in the presence of light to moderate rain. This approach extends the useful wind speed measurement range for tropical cyclones beyond that exhibited by the standard SeaWinds Project Level-2B (L2B) 12.5-km wind vector algorithm. A description of the Q-Winds algorithm is given, and examples of OVW retrievals are presented for the Q-Winds and L2B 12.5-km algorithms for ten hurricane overpasses in 2003-2008. These data are also compared to independent surface wind vector estimates from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Hurricane Research Division's objective hurricane surface wind analysis technique known as H*Wind. These comparisons suggest that the Q-Winds OVW product agrees better with independently derived H^ Wind analysis winds than does the conventional L2B OVW product.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0196-2892 1558-0644
DOI:	10.1109/TGRS.2010.2043110