Retrieval of vertical wind profiles during monsoon from satellite observed winds over the Indian ocean using complex EOF analysis

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study the feasibility of deriving vertical wind profiles from current satellite observations. With this aim, we carried out complex empirical orthogonal function (CEOF) analysis of a large number of radiosonde observations of wind profiles over the Indian Ocean during the monsoon months. It has been found that the first two CEOFs explain 67% of the total variance in wind fields. While the first principal component is well correlated with the winds at 850 mb (r = 0:80), the second one is highly correlated with winds at 200 mb (r = 0:89). This analysis formed the basis of a retrieval algorithm which ensures the retrieval of vertical profiles of winds using satellite tracked cloud motion vector winds. Under the assumption that accurate measurements of wind are available at the above mentioned levels, the r.m.s. error of retrieval of each component of wind is estimated to range between 2 ms-1 and 6 ms-1 at different levels, which is much less than the natural variance of winds at these levels. For a better visualization of retrieval, we have provided retrieved and true wind profiles side by side for four typical synoptic conditions during the monsoon season.