Evaluation of wind vectors observed by HY-2A scatterometer using ocean buoy observations, ASCAT measurements, and numerical model data

Abstract

The first Chinese microwave ocean environment satellite HY-2A was launched successfully in August, 2011. This study presents a quality assessment of HY-2A scatterometer (HYSCAT) data based on comparison with ocean buoy data, the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) data, and numerical model data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). The in-situ observations include those from buoy arrays operated by the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) and Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) project. Only buoys located offshore and in deep water were analyzed. The temporal and spatial collocation windows between HYSCAT data and buoy observations were 30 min and 25 km, respectively. The comparisons showed that the wind speeds and directions observed by HYSCAT agree well with the buoy data. The root-mean-squared errors (RMSEs) of wind speed and direction for the HYSCAT standard wind products are 1.90 m/s and 22.80°, respectively. For the HYSCAT-ASCAT comparison, the temporal and spatial differences were limited to 1 h and 25 km, respectively. This comparison yielded RMSEs of 1.68 m/s for wind speed and 19.1° for wind direction. We also compared HYSCAT winds with reanalysis data from NCEP. The results show that the RMSEs of wind speed and direction are 2.6 m/s and 26°, respectively. The global distribution of wind speed residuals (HYSCAT-NCEP) is also presented here for evaluation of the HYSCAT-retrieved wind field globally. Considering the large temporal and spatial differences of the collocated data, it is concluded that the HYSCAT-retrieved wind speed and direction met the mission requirements, which were 2 m/s and 20° for wind speeds in the range 2–24 m/s. These encouraging assessment results show that the wind data obtained from HYSCAT will be useful for the scientific community.