Identification

Title

Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer wind-speed retrieval improvements

Abstract

With the operational deployment of the Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR), hurricane reconnaissance and research aircraft provide near real-time observations of the 10m ocean-surface wind-speed both within and around tropical cyclones. Hurricane specialists use these data to assist in determining wind radii and maximum sustained windscritical parameters for determining and issuing watches and warnings. These observations are also used for post-storm analysis, model validation, and ground truth for aircraft- and satellite-based wind sensors. We present observations on the current operational wind-speed and rain-rate SFMR retrieval procedures in the tropical cyclone environment and propose suggestions to improve them based on observed wind-speed biases. Using these new models in the SFMR retrieval process, we correct an approximate 10% low bias in the wind-speed retrievals from 15 to 45(-1) with respect to GPS dropwindsondes. In doing so, we eliminate the rain-contaminated wind-speed retrievals below 45 mm(-1) at tropical storm- and hurricane-force speeds present in the current operational model. We also update the SFMR radiative transfer model to include recent updates to smooth-ocean emissivity and atmospheric opacity models. All corrections were designed such that no changes to the current SFMR calibration procedures are required.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d74m97kh

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2019-01-22T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact