Iterative Retrieval Approach Research Articles

Comprehensive, Continuous, and Vertical Measurements of Seawater Constituents with Triple-Field-of-View High-Spectral-Resolution Lidar.

Measuring the characteristics of seawater constituent is in great demand for studies of marine ecosystems and biogeochemistry. However, existing techniques based on remote sensing or insitu samplings present various tradeoffs with regard to the diversity, synchronism, temporal-spatial resolution, and depth-resolved capacity of their data products. Here, we demonstrate a novel oceanic triple-field-of-view (FOV) high-spectral-resolution lidar (HSRL) with an iterative retrieval approach. This technique provides, for the first time, comprehensive, continuous, and vertical measurements of seawater absorption coefficient, scattering coefficient, and slope of particle size distribution, which are validated by simulations and field experiments. Furthermore, it depicts valuable application potentials in the accuracy improvement of seawater classification and the continuous estimation of depth-resolved particulate organic carbon export. The triple-FOV HSRL with high performance could greatly increase the knowledge of seawater constituents and promote the understanding of marine ecosystems and biogeochemistry.

Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD) Wind Speed Retrievals and Validation Using Dropsondes

AbstractSurface wind speed retrievals have been generated and evaluated using Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD) measurements from flights over Hurricane Joaquin, Hurricane Patricia, Hurricane Marty, and the remnants of Tropical Storm Erika—all in 2015. Procedures are described here for producing maps of brightness temperature, which are subsequently used for retrievals of surface wind speed and rain rate across a ~50-km-wide swath for each flight leg. An iterative retrieval approach has been developed to take advantage of HIRAD’s measurement characteristics. Validation of the wind speed retrievals has been conducted, using 636 dropsondes released from the same WB-57 high-altitude aircraft carrying HIRAD during the Tropical Cyclone Intensity (TCI) experiment. The HIRAD wind speed retrievals exhibit very small bias relative to the dropsondes, for winds of tropical storm strength (17.5 m s−1) or greater. HIRAD has reduced sensitivity to winds weaker than tropical storm strength and a small positive bias (~2 m s−1). Two flights with predominantly weak winds according to the dropsondes have abnormally large errors from HIRAD and large positive biases. From the other flights, the root-mean-square differences between HIRAD and the dropsonde winds are 4.1 m s−1 (33%) for winds below tropical storm strength, 5.6 m s−1 (25%) for tropical storm–strength winds, and 6.3 m s−1 (16%) for hurricane-strength winds. The mean absolute differences for those three categories are 3.2 m s−1 (25%), 4.3 m s−1 (19%), and 4.8 m s−1 (12%), respectively, with a bias near zero for winds of tropical storm and hurricane strength.