MARINE WEATHER SYSTEMS: STUDY WITH ASEOS-II AMSR, AQUA AMSR-E AND ENVISAT ASAR

Abstract

Observations carried out by the Aqua AMSR-E (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer), ADEOS-II AMSR and Envisat ASAR (Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar) have been used to study the distribution of total water vapor content V, total cloud liquid water content Q, precipitation R and surface wind W in marine weather systems over the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. V, Q and W were retrieved from the measured brightness temperatures TB(n) with vertical and horizontal polarization at AMSR frequencies n with using of the developed algorithms. Strong gradients in the surface wind field existing at scales of a few kilometers and less are dramatically smoothed in AMSR data retrievals as follows from a comparison with Envisat ASAR images. Joint analysis of the active/passive microwave images of the cold air outbreaks and atmospheric convective eddies revealed the relationships of the high-gradient zones of water vapor and surface wind. The regulated structures in the marine boundary layer of the atmosphere such as mesoscale convective cells and rolls, etc. were detected both on the ASAR and on TB(89) images. The NOAA AVHRR, Terra and Aqua MODIS images, QuikSCAT wind vector fields and surface analysis maps were used as complimentary information