Authors

D. E. Weissman; B. W. Stiles; S. M. Hristova-Veleva; D. G. Long; D. K. Smith; K. A. Hilburn;W. L. Jones

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Abbreviated Journal Title

J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol.

Keywords

RADAR CROSS-SECTION; SCATTEROMETER DATA; QUALITY-CONTROL; RAIN; RETRIEVAL; SEAWINDS; WAVES; BACKSCATTER; SPACE; MODEL; ASCAT; Engineering, Ocean; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences

Abstract

Measurements of global ocean surface winds made by orbiting satellite radars have provided valuable information to the oceanographic and meteorological communities since the launch of the Seasat in 1978, by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). When Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) was launched in 1999, it ushered in a new era of dual-polarized, pencil-beam, higher-resolution scatterometers for measuring the global ocean surface winds from space. A constant limitation on the full utilization of scatterometer-derived winds is the presence of isolated rain events, which affect about 7% of the observations. The vector wind sensors, the Ku-band scatterometers [NASA's SeaWinds on the QuikSCAT and Midori-II platforms and Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO's) Ocean Satellite (Oceansat)-2], and the current C-band scatterometer [Advanced Wind Scatterometer (ASCAT), on the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)'s Meteorological Operation (MetOp) platform] all experience rain interference, but with different characteristics. Over this past decade, broad-based research studies have sought to better understand the physics of the rain interference problem, to search for methods to bypass the problem (using rain detection, flagging, and avoidance of affected areas), and to develop techniques to improve the quality of the derived wind vectors that are adversely affected by rain. This paper reviews the state of the art in rain flagging and rain correction and describes many of these approaches, methodologies, and summarizes the results.

Journal Title

Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology

Volume

29

Issue/Number

3

Publication Date

1-1-2012

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

356

Last Page

374

WOS Identifier

WOS:000301754700006

ISSN

0739-0572

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