Improved Hurricane Ocean Vector Winds Using SeaWinds Active/Passive Retrievals

    Authors

    P. Laupattarakasem; W. L. Jones; C. C. Hennon; J. R. Allard; A. R. Harless;P. G. Black

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing

    Keywords

    H* Wind; hurricane retrieval; ocean vector wind (OVW) retrieval; QuikSCAT; rain correction; scatterometer; SeaWinds; TROPICAL CYCLONES; SYSTEM; RADAR; NSCAT; MODEL; BAND; HRD; Geochemistry & Geophysics; Engineering, Electrical & Electronic; Remote; Sensing; Imaging Science & Photographic Technology

    Abstract

    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.

    Journal Title

    Ieee Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing

    Volume

    48

    Issue/Number

    7

    Publication Date

    1-1-2010

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    2909

    Last Page

    2923

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000281789800013

    ISSN

    0196-2892

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