A New Retracking Technique for Brown Peaky Altimetric Waveforms

A new Brown-Peaky (BP) retracker has been developed for peaky waveforms that usually appear within ～10 km to the coastline. The main feature of the BP is that it fits peaky waveforms using the Brown model without introducing a peak function. The retracking strategy first detects the peak location and width of a waveform using an adaptive peak detection method, and then estimates retracking parameters using a weighted least squares (WLS) estimator. The WLS assigns a downsized weight to corrupted waveform gates, but an equal weight to other normal waveform gates. The BP retracker has been applied to 4-year Jason-1 waveform (2002–2006) in two Australian coastal zones. The results retracked by BP, MLE4 and ALES retrackers have been validated against tide-gauge observations located at Burnie, Lorne and Broome. The comparison results show that three retrackers have similar performance over open oceans with the correlation coefficient (～0.7) and RMSE (～13 cm) between altimetric and tide-gauge sea levels for distance >7 km offshore. The main improvement of BP retracker occurs for distance ≤7 km to the coastline, where validation results indicate that data retracked by BP are more accurate (15–21 cm) than those by ALES (16–24 cm) and MLE4 (19–37 cm).     

不同插值方法在海域气象参数估算中的可靠性评价

海域条件下的气象观测具有数据稀少、变化大且观测站点分布不均的特点,其插值精度受插值方法影响较大。首先对常规插值方法进行理论分析,进而选取了反距离加权法、克里金法和样条函数法三种插值方法进行了插值实验和精度分析。根据渤海湾某区域的气象历史数据,采用不同方法绘制了温度、压强和湿度的插值平面图,并基于交叉验证的方式对各插值方法进行了对比,给出了不同方法的插值估算可靠性评价。结果表明:温度、压强和湿度的插值精度均是基于反距离加权法的插值结果最优(MAE_(温度)=2.42,RMSE_(温度)=1.92,MAE_(压强)=2.05,RMSE_(压强)=1.30,MAE_(湿度)=11.394, RMSE_(压强)=6.43),同时基于反距离加权法的图形绘制可视化效果也要优于其他两种方法。研究结果可为海域气象参数估算提供理论和实践依据。     

台湾海峡海表面温度的遥感反演及精度检验

海表面温度(SST)是海洋-大气系统中一个十分关键的物理量。SST为海洋学课题的研究提供了一种直观的指示量[1],在海洋捕捞中SST是寻找中心渔场的指标之一,可为渔业部门提供鱼类的回游路线和渔场的位置信息[2]。SST制约着海面和大气的热量、动量和水汽交换,是研究大气环流和气候变化[3]甚至台风移动路径[4]等气象学课题的一个重要因子。因此,SST在海洋学和气象学研究中占有非常重要的地位,此外SST对海洋运输、海洋污染、海上油气资源开发、海滨核电站建设等方面的影响近年来也倍受关注。     

基于客观分析的多源卫星叶绿素a浓度产品融合方法研究

本文基于Aqua/MODIS、Terra/MODIS和Envisat/MERIS多源卫星叶绿素a浓度产品,研究了客观分析融合方法,制作了西北太平洋海域(0°~50°N,100°~150°E)叶绿素a浓度融合产品,并从有效数据空间覆盖率和产品精度两个方面对融合方法进行了评价。与单传感器以及欧洲太空局发布的GSM模型业务化融合产品相比,客观分析融合产品空间覆盖率明显提高;与收集的2002-2012年间叶绿素a浓度实测数据比较,GSM模型业务化融合产品的匹配数据点为578个,偏差为-0.20 mg/m3,均方根误差为0.37 mg/m3,客观分析法融合产品的匹配数据点为1432个,偏差为-0.21 mg/m3,均方根误差为0.36 mg/m3。结果表明:本文研究的客观分析融合方法在保证融合产品精度的同时可显著提高产品的空间覆盖率,在海洋水色融合应用前景广阔。     

Long-Term Validation of Wave Height Measurements from Altimeters

Since July 1991, six altimeter missions have been launched successfully, and they have provided almost continuous wave height measurements for more than 12 years. Long-term series of wave height measurements are of major interest for climatology and oceanic wave modeling. Before using such data, the measurements have to be validated, and the homogeneity of the data from various satellites has to be checked. Significant wave height measurements from ERS, TOPEX/Poseidon, GEOSAT Follow-on, Jason-1 and ENVISAT altimeters are validated using cross-altimeter and buoy comparisons. Emphasis is put on the two recent missions Jason-1 and ENVISAT. Corrections for biases and trends are proposed for the six altimeters, allowing the generation of consistent and homogeneous data. Tests of these corrections are performed over global ocean simple statistics.     

Simultaneous Ocean Wave Measurements by the Jason and Topex Satellites,with Buoy and Model Comparisons Special Issue: Jason-1 Calibration/Validation

The verification phase of the Jason-1 satellite altimeter mission presents a unique opportunity for comparing near-simultaneous, independent satellite measurements. Here we examine simultaneous significant wave height measurements by the Jason-1 and TOPEX/Poseidon altimeters. These data are also compared with in situ measurements from deep-ocean buoys and with predicted wave heights from the Wave Watch III operational model. The rms difference between Jason and TOPEX wave heights is 28 cm, and this can be lowered by half through improved outlier editing and filtering of high-frequency noise. Noise is slightly larger in the Jason dataset, exceeding TOPEX by about 7 cm rms at frequencies above 0.05 Hz, which is the frequency at which the coherence between TOPEX and Jason measurements drops to zero. Jason wave heights are more prone to outliers, especially during periods of moderate to high backscatter. Buoy comparisons confirm previous reports that TOPEX wave heights are roughly 5% smaller than buoy measurements for waves between 2 and 5 m; Jason heights in general are 3% smaller than TOPEX. Spurious dips in the TOPEX density function for 3- and 6-m waves, a problem that has existed since the beginning of the mission, can be solved by waveform retracking.     

Limnology of Bird Pond,Ross Island,Antarctica

The physical, chemical and biological properties of Bird Pond, Cape Bird, Ross Island, Antarctica (77° 13’ 10” S, 166° 28’ 30” E), were investigated at weekly intervals for 2 months in the summer of 1970–71. The above properties were also investigated over a 24‐h period. Salinity and temperature tolerance of the rotifer Philodina gregaria were investigated in the laboratory at Cape Bird.

Bird Pond is characterised by a high conductivity and chloride ion concentration, and an alkaline pH. It has a water temperature as high as 15°c in mid summer, with the bottom water temperature often 3°c higher than the surface temperature. Diurnal measurements suggest a vertical movement of phytoplankton during a 24‐h period. P. gregaria survives ionic concentrations up to 250 000 g.m^‐3 Na⁺ + Cl^‐, and water temperatures up to 32°c.     

Comparison of AVHRR measurements of sea surface temperature with surface observations around New Zealand

Multi‐channel Advanced Very‐High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) images of sea surface temperature (SST) in the New Zealand region have been archived since 1989. A comparison of these data with conductivity‐temperature‐depth (CTD) and expendable bathythermograph (XBT) data shows that the AVHRR temperatures are about 7% too high (when expressed in °C). Once the AVHRR temperatures have been corrected, they measure SST with an uncertainty of about 0.7°C.     

First six months quality assessment of HY-2A SCAT wind products using in situ measurements

The first Chinese microwave ocean environment satellite HY-2A, carrying a Ku-band scatteromenter （SCAT）, was successfully launched in August 2011. The first quality assessment of HY-2A SCAT wind products is presented through the comparison of the first 6 months operationally released SCAT products with in situ data. The in situ winds from the National Data Buoy Center （NDBC） buoys, R/V Polarstern, Aurora Australis, Roger Revelle and PY30-1 oil platform, were converted to the 10 m equivalent neutral winds. The temporal and spatial differences between the HY-2A SCAT and the in situ observations were limited to less than 5 min and 12.5 km. For HY-2A SCAT wind speed products, the comparison and analysis using the NDBC buoys yield a bias of-0.49 m/s, a root mean square error （RMSE） of 1.3 m/s and an increase negative bias with increasing wind speed observation above 3 m/s. Although less accurate of HY-2A SCAT wind direction at low winds, the RMSE of 19.19° with a bias of 0.92° is found for wind speeds higher than 3 m/s. These results are found consistent with those from R/Vs and oil platform comparisons. Moreover, the NDBC buoy comparison results also suggest that the accuracy of HY-2A SCAT winds is consistent over the first half year of 2012. The encouraging assessment results over the first 6 months show that wind products from HY-2A SCAT will be useful for scientific community.