Year-end Sale % OFF 
Abstract
Abstract. Satellite measurements of surface wind speed over the ocean inform a wide variety of scientific pursuits. While both active and passive microwave sensors are traditionally used to detect surface wind speed over water surfaces, measurements of reflected sunlight in the near-infrared made by the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) are also sensitive to the wind speed. In this work, retrieved wind speeds from OCO-2 glint measurements are validated against the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-2 (AMSR2). Both sensors are in the international Afternoon Constellation (A-Train), allowing for a large number of co-located observations. Several different OCO-2 retrieval algorithm modifications are tested, with the most successful being a single-band Cox–Munk-only model. Using this, we find excellent agreement between the two sensors, with OCO-2 having a small mean bias against AMSR2 of −0.22 m s−1, an RMSD of 0.75 m s−1, and a correlation coefficient of 0.94. Although OCO-2 is restricted to clear-sky measurements, potential benefits of its higher spatial resolution relative to microwave instruments include the study of coastal wind processes, which may be able to inform certain economic sectors.
Highlights
Surface wind speed has been measured by satellites going back nearly half a century
We evaluated the wind speed performance of the production Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) Atmospheric Carbon Observations from Space (ACOS) B9 retrieval algorithm along with three modifications to this algorithm
It was found that the operational product (ACOS B9) is biased high against Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-2 (AMSR2), with the bias increasing at higher wind speeds
Summary
These measurements have proven extremely valuable in improving weather and climate models while advancing our understanding of oceanic and atmospheric physics Both active and passive sensors are used to estimate wind speeds, and these measurements are typically made in the microwave frequency range in order to penetrate through clouds and most precipitation. In this work we compare wind speed estimates from spectroscopic observations from OCO-2 to passive microwave observations from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) on the Japanese Global Change Observation Mission for Water-1 (GCOM-W1) satellite. Both satellites are in a unique sun-synchronous polar orbit known as the Afternoon Constellation (A-Train) (L’Ecuyer and Jiang, 2010), which enables excellent co-location in both time and space. While we recognize that buoys are generally considered the best validation metric, we forego them here in favor of AMSR2 because of its excellent colocation with OCO-2 in both time and space
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
