Evaluating the Accuracy of Scatterometer Winds: A Study of Wind Correction Methods Using Buoy Observations

作者：Sheng Yang, Lu Zhang, Chaofei Ma, H. S. Peng, Wu Zhou, Yingcheng Lu, Zhixiong Wang, Shiyan Wei, Bo Mu, Juhong Zou · 发表于：IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1109/tgrs.2024.3505988 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Ocean Waves and Remote Sensing、Coastal and Marine Dynamics

Scatterometer wind data are critical for meteorological and oceanographic applications. The differences between scatterometer winds and buoy reference winds largely depend on the type of reference wind used in the fitting of the scatterometer’s geophysical model function (GMF). This study evaluates scatterometer winds using advanced buoy reference winds, specifically stress-equivalent winds (U10S), and equivalent-neutral winds (U10N). We utilized HSCAT-B scatterometer wind products retrieved using both NSCAT-4 and NSCAT-5 GMFs). NSCAT-4 winds were corrected to stress-equivalent winds, and these scatterometer winds were compared with various buoy reference winds, including true buoy winds, stress-equivalent winds, and equivalent-neutral winds. The results show that in extratropical regions, stress-equivalent winds provided a closer match to scatterometer winds, while in tropical regions, equivalent-neutral winds exhibited smaller errors. Scatterometer winds derived from the NSCAT-5 GMF demonstrated superior consistency with buoy reference winds, further reducing wind speed biases compared to NSCAT-4. An extended triple collocation (ETC) analysis was conducted to address the uncertainties arising from differences in spatial resolution between scatterometer and buoy measurements. The findings emphasize the importance of using appropriate wind correction methods for scatterometer wind validation, particularly in regions with significant atmospheric variability.