Development of a Global Scatterometer Validation and Monitoring

• Main Authors: Portabella, Marcos, Stoffelen, Ad
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 2007
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/257167

37 pages Stoffelen (1998b) developed an advanced validation model for winds over the ocean based on triple collocation of scatterometer, buoy, and Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP )model winds. This method has been further tested in the tropical region for wind (Djepa, 2001) and been extended to wind stress modelling in the context of the Climate Monitoring (CM) Satellite Application Facility (SAF) (Stoffelen et al, 2006). In line with user and reviewer recommendations for further validation, we here report on the extension of this activity to the extra-tropics in an Ocean & Sea Ice (OSI )SAF Visiting Scientist (VS) study. Wind forces motion in the ocean and in turn the motion in the ocean determines the weather and climate in large portions of the world. Wind forcing is essential in the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and other ocean-atmosphere interaction phenomena, occurring in the Tropics. As such, a homogeneous wind data set of high quality would much advance research on the prediction and mechanisms of seasonal forecasting. Vialard (2000) emphasizes that wind stress is certainly the most important forcing in the tropics. Moreover, ocean circulation and ENSO play a key role in the Earth’ climate. Besides tropical needs, obvious applications of such wind stress product would be among others in the modelling of the Antarctic circumpolar current, forcing of the southern oceans, research on the variability and occurrence of storms, and forcing in complex basins, e.g., the Mediterranean. Complementary to buoy observations, it would be useful to have continuous wind stress time series of high temporal and spatial resolution, extending beyond the buoy area. This would aid in the understanding of the unexplained variability of these wind events from year to year. [.] Peer reviewed