Central swath mapping by a future satellite-borne fan-beam microwave scatterometer for inferring global ocean wind fields

The SeaSat-A satellite scatterometer is a microwave sensor designed to provide a capability for mapping the global ocean surface wind speed and direction. Four fan beams whose major axes are oriented atpm45andpm135degto the flight vector cover a swath width of 1900 km, but a central region remains that is inadequately mapped. In this paper, two additional fan beams are suggested for a future scatterometer that provide a more complete coverage of the central region.     

A scanning multichannel microwave radiometer for Nimbus-G and SeaSat-A

A scanning multichannel microwave radiometer (SMMR) has been designed for the Nimbus-G spacecraft and incorporated also into the SeaSat-A payload for the primary purpose of determining sea surface temperatures and wind stress on a nearly all-weather basis. Observations of microwave polarization components will be made at wavelengths of 0.8, 1.4, 1.7, 2.8, and 4.6 cm over a swath 822 km wide below the Nimbus-G and 595 km wide below the SeaSat-A spacecraft. The smallest spatial resolution cell is about 20 km at a wavelength of 0.8 cm, and proportionately larger at the other wavelengths. Using algorithms based on a combination of experimental data and physical models for converting the observed brightness temperatures, the indicated accuracies of the results (excluding conditions of significant rainfall) are within 1 K for sea surface temperature and 2 m/s for surface wind speeds, over a range from 0-50 m/s.     

一种改进的扇形波束旋转扫描散射计海面风矢量反演算法

扇形波束旋转扫描散射计（RFSCAT）是约十年前才被提出来的一种新型星载微波散射计。与其它旋转扫描散射计类似,其星下点附近区域和刈幅边缘区域的风场反演误差相对较大。在本文设定的参数条件下,RFSCAT散射计刈幅边缘区域的风向反演精度相对于轨道中间区域降低了约9°。针对这一问题,本文为RFSCAT散射计提出了一种改进的风矢量反演算法。新算法的主要特征是,根据风向反演偏差直方图,在整个刈幅区域内,对模糊解风向取值区间进行自适应扩展,以获取并保留更多可能风向解。利用模拟的100条轨道的L2A数据,对新算法进行反演验证。实验结果证明,新算法能够有效改善RFSCAT散射计星下点附近区域和轨道刈幅边缘区域的风向反演精度。星下点和刈幅边缘上的风矢量单元的风向反演精度相对于标准的MLE算法分别提高了1.6°和9°。     

HY-2B卫星散射计海面风场产品质量分析 *

星载微波散射计是获取全球海面风场信息的主要手段, HY-2B卫星散射计的成功发射为全球海面风场数据获取的持续性提供了重要保障。本文利用欧洲中期天气预报中心(European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, ECMWF)再分析风场数据、热带大气海洋观测计划(Tropical Atmosphere Ocean Array, TAO)和美国国家数据浮标中心(National Data Buoy Center, NDBC)浮标获取的海面风矢量实测数据, 对HY-2B散射计海面风场数据产品的质量进行统计分析。分析表明, HY-2B风场与ECMWF再分析风场对比, 在4~24m·s^-1风速区间内, 风速和风向均方根误差(root mean square error, RMSE)分别为1.58m·s^-1和15.34°; 与位于开阔海域的TAO浮标数据对比, 风速、风向RMSE分别为1.03m·s^-1和14.98°, 可见HY-2B风场能较好地满足业务化应用的精度要求(风速优于2m·s^-1, 风向优于20°)。与主要位于近海海域的NDBC浮标对比, HY-2B风场的风速、风向RMSE分别为1.60m·s^-1和19.14°, 说明HY-2B散射计同时具备了对近海海域风场的良好观测能力。本文还发现HY-2B风场质量会随风速、地面交轨位置等变化, 为用户更好地使用HY-2B风场产品提供参考。     

Validation and accuracy analysis of wind products from scatterometer onboard the HY-2B satellite

The Chinese marine dynamic environment satellite HY-2B was launched in October 2018 and carries a Ku-band scatterometer. This paper focuses on the accuracies of HY-2B scatterometer wind data during the period from November 2018 to May 2021. The HY-2B wind data are validated against global moored buoys operated by the U.S. National Data Buoy Center and Tropical Atmosphere Ocean, numerical model data by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, and the Advanced Scatterometer data issued b...     

Seasat-A satellite scatterometer instrument evaluation

The Seasat-A satellite scatterometer (SASS) was designed to measure ocean surface wind speed and direction in twenty-four (24) independent cells over a 1000-km swath. It operated in the interrupted CW mode at a frequency of 14.6 GHz with four (4) fan beam antennas and used Doppler filtering in the receiver for resolving the cells on the surface. The instrument began operating in space on July 6, 1978, and gathered normalized radar cross section (sigma^{0}) data for approximately 2290 h. The purpose of this paper is to describe the in-orbit evaluation of the SASS hardware and its compatibility with the spacecraft. It has been determined that the scatterometer operated flawlessly throughout the mission, met all design requirements, and established a good data base for geophysical processing.     

Wind speed inversion and in-orbit assessment of the imaging altimeter on Tiangong-2 space station

Imaging altimeter (IALT) is a new type of radar altimeter system. In contrast to the conventional nadir-looking altimeters, such as HY-2A altimeter, Jason-1/2, and TOPEX/Poseidon, IALT observes the earth surface at low incident angles (2.5°–8°), so its swath is much wider and its spatial resolution is much higher than the previous altimeters. This paper presents a wind speed inversion method for the recently launched IALT onboard Tiangong-2 space station. Since the current calibration results of IALT do not agree well with the well-known wind geophysical model function at low incidence angles, a neural network is used to retrieve the ocean surface wind speed in this study. The wind speed inversion accuracy is evaluated by comparing with the ECMWF reanalysis wind speed, buoy wind speed, and in-situ ship measurements. The results show that the retrieved wind speed bias is about –0.21 m/s, and the root-mean-square (RMS) error is about 1.85 m/s. The wind speed accuracy of IALT meets the performance requirement.     

两种ASCAT 散射计风产品的比较及评估

基于浮标和步进频率微波辐射计(SFMR,Stepped-Frequency Microwave Radiometer)数据对NASA JPL(Jet Propulsion Laboratory)和RSS(Remote Sensing Systems)公司分别发布的已广泛应用于全球海面风场观测的ASCAT(Advanced SCATterometer)散射计风产品进行了比较和分析。结果表明,两者风速在中低风速(15 m/s)时基本一致;高风速(15 m/s)时RSS风速整体高于JPL风速。通过浮标数据对比,风速15 m/s时两者风速精度一致;风速15 m/s时两者风速RMS相当,但JPL和RSS风速分别低估和高估。利用SFMR数据检验表明RSS风速与SFMR风速一致性更好。两者风向精度在低风速(5 m/s)时较低,但随风速增加而提高并趋于稳定。该研究结果对相关科研人员的ASCAT散射计风产品选择具有重要的指导意义。     

海浪对ASCAT散射计反演风场的影响研究

To improve retrieval accuracy, this paper studies wave effects on retrieved wind field from a scatterometer. First, the advanced scatterometer(ASCAT) data and buoy data of the National Data Buoy Center(NDBC) are collocated. Buoy wind speed is converted into neutral wind at 10 m height. Then, ASCAT data are compared with the buoy data for the wind speed and direction. Subsequently, the errors between the ASCAT and the buoy wind as a function of each wave parameter are used to analyze the wave effects. Wave parameters include dominant wave period(dpd), significant wave height(swh), average wave period(apd) and the angle between the dominant wave direction(dwd) and the wind direction. Collocated data are divided into sub-datasets according to the different intervals of each wave parameter. A root mean square error(RMSE) for the wind speed and a mean absolute error(MAE) for the wind direction are calculated from the sub-datasets, which are considered as the function of wave parameters. Finally, optimal wave conditions on wind retrieved from the ASCAT are determined based on the error analyses. The results show the ocean wave parameters have correlative relationships with the RMSE of the retrieved wind speed and the MAE of the retrieved wind direction. The optimal wave conditions are presented in terms of dpd, swh, apd and angle.     

Aircraft measurements of the microwave scattering signature of the ocean

Microwave scattering signatures of the ocean have been measured over a range of surface wind speeds from 3 m/s to 23.6 m/s using the AAFE RADSCAT scatterometer in an aircraft. Normalized scattering coefficients are presented for vertical and horizontal polarizations as a function of incidence angle (nadir to55deg) and radar azimuth angle (0degto360deg) relative to surface wind direction. For a given radar polarization, incidence angle, and azimuth angle relative to the wind direction, these scattering data exhibit a power law dependence on surface wind speed. The relation of the scattering coefficient to azimuth angle obtained during aircraft circles (antenna conical scans) is anisotropic and suggests that microwave scatterometers can be used to infer both wind speed and direction. These results have been used for the design of the Seasat-A Satellite Scatterometer (SASS) to be flown in 1978 on this first NASA oceanographic satellite.     

基于SAR图像雨团足印的海面风向提取方法

利用地球物理模式函数进行SAR海面风速反演时，需以风向作为地球物理模式函数的输入。本文应用了一种利用SAR图像上雨团足印顺风一侧比逆风一侧明亮的图像特征的海面风向提取方法，以进行海面风速反演。4景RADARSAT-2卫星SAR示例数据风向提取结果相对于ASCAT散射计的风向均方根误差满足不大于16°。分别以本文方法提取的风向和ASCAT散射计风向作为输入，利用地球物理模式函数CMOD5进行海面风速的SAR反演，两者的风速反演结果基本一致，其均方根误差差值不超过0.3 m/s。本文利用SAR图像雨团足印信息的风向提取方法准确可靠，可应用于SAR海面风速反演。     

中法海洋卫星微波散射计风场反演残差特性研究

2018年10月发射的中法海洋卫星散射计(CSCAT)是国际上首个扇形波束旋转扫描微波散射计。本文以最大似然估计风场反演算法为基线,详细分析了中法海洋卫星微波散射计海面风场反演代价函数的残差特性,重点研究了新的观测几何对风场反演残差以及风场质量的影响,并建立了风场模糊解的似然概率模型函数。结果表明,CSCAT风场反演的残差特性随风矢量单元在刈幅交轨方向位置的变化而变化,模糊解似然概率模型函数的指数分布在?0.4～?1.8之间。分析结果为CSCAT风场质量控制和二维变分分析去模糊算法的精细化调整提供了重要的参考。     

全极化合成孔径雷达近岸风场反演研究

Coastal winds are strongly influenced by topology and discontinuity between land and sea surfaces. Wind assessment from remote sensing in such a complex area remains a challenge. Space-borne scatterometer does not provide any information about the coastal wind field, as the coarse spatial resolution hampers the radar backscattering. Synthetic aperture radar （SAR） with a high spatial resolution and all-weather observation abilities has become one of the most important tools for ocean wind retrieval, especially in the coastal area. Conventional methods of wind field retrieval from SAR, however, require wind direction as initial information, such as the wind direction from numerical weather prediction models （NWP）, which may not match the time of SAR image acquiring. Fortunately, the polarimetric observations of SAR enable independent wind retrieval from SAR images alone. In order to accurately measure coastal wind fields, this paper proposes a new method of using co-polarization backscattering coefficients from polarimetric SAR observations up to polarimetric correlation backscattering coefficients, which are acquired from the conjugate product of co-polarization backscatter and cross-polarization backscatter. Co-polarization backscattering coefficients and polarimetric correlation backscattering coefficients are obtained form Radarsat-2 single-look complex （SLC） data.The maximum likelihood estimation is used to gain the initial results followed by the coarse spatial filtering and fine spatial filtering. Wind direction accuracy of the final inversion results is 10.67 with a wind speed accuracy of 0.32 m/s. Unlike previous methods, the methods described in this article utilize the SAR data itself to obtain the wind vectors and do not need external wind directional information. High spatial resolution and high accuracy are the most important features of the method described herein since the use of full polarimetric observations contains more information about the space measured.This article is a useful addition to the work of independent SAR wind retrieval. The experimental results herein show that it is feasible to employ the co-polarimetric backscattering coefficients and the polarimetric correlation backscattering coefficients for coastal wind field retrieval.     

Comparing satellite and meteorological data on wind velocity over the Black Sea

Wind-velocity data obtained from in situ measurements at the Golitsyno-4 marine stationary platform have been compared with QuikSCAT scatterometer data; NCEP, MERRA, and ERA-Interim global reanalyses and MM5 regional atmospheric reanalysis. In order to adjust wind velocity measured at a height of 37 m above the sea surface to a standard height of 10 m with stratification taken into account, the Monin–Obukhov theory and regional atmospheric reanalysis data are used. Data obtained with the QuikSCAT scatterometer most adequately describe the real variability of wind over the Black Sea. Errors in reanalysis data are not high either: the regression coefficient varies from 0.98 to 1.06, the rms deviation of the velocity amplitude varies from 1.90 to 2.24 m/s, and the rms deviation of the direction angle varies from 26° to 36°. Errors in determining the velocity and direction of wind depend on its amplitude: under weak winds (<3 m/s), the velocity of wind is overestimated and errors significantly increase in determining its direction; under strong winds (>12 m/s), its velocity is underestimated. The influence of these errors on both spatial and temporal estimates of the characteristics of wind over the Black Sea is briefly considered.     

基于C-2PO模型和CMOD5.N地球物理模式函数的SAR风速反演性能评估

本文选取142幅RADARSAT-2全极化合成孔径雷达（SAR）影像，在没有入射角输入的情况下，首先利用C-2PO模型进行海面风速反演。随后，将同一时空下的ASCAT散射计风向作为初始风向，提取相应雷达入射角，利用地球物理模式函数（GMF） CMOD5.N对142幅SAR影像进行风速计算。反演结果与美国国家资料浮标中心海洋浮标风速数据对比，结果显示:CMOD5.N GMF和C-2PO模型均可反演出较高精确度的海面风速，其均方根误差分别为1.68 m/s和1.74 m/s。此外，研究发现，在低风速段，CMOD5.N GMF的风速反演精度要明显优于C-2PO模型。针对这一现象，本文以SAR系统成像机理为基础，以低风速SAR图像为具体案例，给出了3种造成这一现象的原因。     

星载SAR对雨团催生海面风场的观测研究

雨团或对流雨是热带与亚热带地区的主要降雨形式,较易被高分辨率星载合成孔径雷达（SAR）探测到。SAR图像上的雨团足印是由大气中雨滴的散射与吸收、下沉气流等共同导致形成的。本文以RADARSAT-2卫星100 m分辨率的SAR图像上雨团引起的海面风场及其结构反演与解译作为实例进行分析。使用CMOD4地球物理模式函数,分别以NCEP再分析数据、欧洲MetOp-A卫星先进散射计（ASCAT）和中国HY-2卫星微波散射计的风向为外部风向,进行了SAR图像的海面风场反演。反演的海面风速相对于NCEP、ASCAT和HY-2的均方根误差（RMSE）分别为1.48 m/s,1.64 m/s和2.14 m/s。SAR图像上一侧明亮另一侧昏暗的圆形信号图斑被解译为雨团携带的下沉气流对海面风场（海面粗糙度）的改变所致。平行于海面背景风场其通过雨团圆形足印中心的剖面上的风速变化可拟合为正弦或余弦曲线,其拟合线性相关系数均不低于0.80。背景风场的风速大小、雨团引起的风速大小以及雨团足印的直径可利用拟合曲线获得,雨团足印的直径大小一般为数千米或数十千米,本文的8例个例解译与分析均验证了该结论。     

神经网络反演散射计风场算法的研究

建立了一个神经网络反演卫星散射计海面风场的B-P算法,给出了一个神经网络反演风场的模型,并利用该反演算法和模型对实际卫星散射计数据进行了海面风场反演试验,对风向的多解性利用圆中数滤波方法进行排除.对神经网络训练和检验数据集分别采用ERS-1/2散射计数据和欧洲中期天气预报(ECMWF)提供的风场作为配准点数据.把反演的风速和风向与CMCD4和ECMWF的风场作了比较,它们吻合得比较好;研究表明神经网络反演海面风场是可行和高效的.     

基于浮标实测数据的WindSat海洋反演产品精度分析

To evaluate the ocean surface wind vector and the sea surface temperature obtained from Wind Sat, we compare these quantities over the time period from January 2004 to December 2013 with moored buoy measurements. The mean bias between the Wind Sat wind speed and the buoy wind speed is low for the low frequency wind speed product(WSPD_LF), ranging from –0.07 to 0.08 m/s in different selected areas. The overall RMS error is 0.98 m/s for WSPD_LF, ranging from 0.82 to 1.16 m/s in different selected regions. The wind speed retrieval result in the tropical Ocean is better than that of the coastal and offshore waters of the United States. In addition, the wind speed retrieval accuracy of WSPD_LF is better than that of the medium frequency wind speed product. The crosstalk analysis indicates that the Wind Sat wind speed retrieval contains some cross influences from the other geophysical parameters, such as sea surface temperature, water vapor and cloud liquid water. The mean bias between the Wind Sat wind direction and the buoy wind direction ranges from –0.46° to 1.19° in different selected regions. The overall RMS error is 19.59° when the wind speed is greater than 6 m/s. Measurements of the tropical ocean region have a better accuracy than those of the US west and east coasts. Very good agreement is obtained between sea surface temperatures of Wind Sat and buoy measurements in the tropical Pacific Ocean; the overall RMS error is only 0.36°C, and the retrieval accuracy of the low latitudes is better than that of the middle and high latitudes.     

卫星散射计与海面平台所测的风场数据比较

基于南海北部海面PY30-1石油平台气象站测风仪2011年7月19日—2012年9月17日实测的风场数据,分别开展了对卫星搭载的ASCAT和HY-2散射计所测风场数据的比较研究,分析散射计的测风能力(选取的时空窗口为30 min和25 km)。结果表明:在南海北部海域,ASCAT 散射计所测风速和PY30-1石油平台气象站观测风速的均方根误差为2.53 m/s,风向偏差较大,均方根误差为47.87°;HY-2散射计所测风速和PY30-1石油平台气象站观测风速的均方根误差为3.41 m/s,风向的均方根误差为58.66°。分别按低、中和高风速的不同条件将ASCAT和HY-2散射计所测的风场数据与PY30-1石油平台气象站观测的风场数据加以比较可知,ASCAT和HY-2散射计都具有较好的测风能力, 前者所测风速与PY30-1石油平台气象站测风仪观测风速的均方根误差稍小于后者。在150 min和15 km的时空窗口下,ASCAT与HY-2散射计所测风速的均方根误差为0.72 m/s,风向的均方根误差为8.50°。     

降雨条件下全极化微波辐射计海面风场校正

为提高降雨条件下星载全极化微波辐射计海面风场精度,通过匹配WindSat海面风场和降雨率数据以及美国国家浮标中心浮标观测数据,得到18 996组匹配样本,深入分析了降雨对海面风场反演精度的严重影响,构建了风场校正模型。试验结果表明,降雨导致海面风速被严重高估,风向误差随着降雨率的增大而增大。校正后的风速精度在低风速段提升明显。无论降雨率多大,校正后风速精度均比校正前高。风速均方根误差由原来的2.9 m/s降低到了2.1 m/s,风向均方根误差由原来的26.9°降低到了26.3°。