scholarly journals Wind Speed Retrieval from Simulated RADARSAT Constellation Mission Compact Polarimetry SAR Data for Marine Application

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (14) ◽  
pp. 1682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torsten Geldsetzer ◽  
Shahid K. Khurshid ◽  
Kerri Warner ◽  
Filipe Botelho ◽  
Dean Flett

RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) compact polarimetry (CP) data were simulated using 504 RADARSAT-2 quad-pol SAR images. These images were used to samples CP data in three RCM modes to build a data set with co-located ocean wind vector observations from in situ buoys on the West and East coasts of Canada. Wind speeds up to 18 m/s were included. CP and linear polarization parameters were related to the C-band model (CMOD) geophysical model functions CMOD-IFR2 and CMOD5n. These were evaluated for their wind retrieval potential in each RCM mode. The CP parameter Conformity was investigated to establish a data-quality threshold (>0.2), to ensure high-quality data for model validation. An accuracy analysis shows that the first Stokes vector (SV0) and the right-transmit vertical-receive backscatter (RV) parameters were as good as the VV backscatter with CMOD inversion. SV0 produced wind speed retrieval accuracies between 2.13 m/s and 2.22 m/s, depending on the RCM mode. The RCM Medium Resolution 50 m mode produced the best results. The Low Resolution 100 m and Low Noise modes provided similar results. The efficacy of SV0 and RV imparts confidence in the continuity of robust wind speed retrieval with RCM CP data. Three image-based case studies illustrate the potential for the application of CP parameters and RCM modes in operational wind retrieval systems. The results of this study provide guidance to direct research objectives once RCM is launched. The results also provide guidance for operational RCM data implementation in Canada’s National SAR winds system, which provides near-real-time wind speed estimates to operational marine forecasters and meteorologists within Environment and Climate Change Canada.

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 7945-7984 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.-J. van Zadelhoff ◽  
A. Stoffelen ◽  
P. W. Vachon ◽  
J. Wolfe ◽  
J. Horstmann ◽  
...  

Abstract. Hurricane-force wind speeds can have a large societal impact and in this paper microwave C-band cross-polarized (VH) signals are investigated to assess if they can be used to derive extreme wind speed conditions. European satellite scatterometers have excellent hurricane penetration capability at C-band, but the vertically (VV) polarized signals become insensitive above 25 m s−1. VV and VH polarized backscatter signals from RADARSAT-2 SAR imagery acquired during severe hurricane events were compared to collocated SFMR wind measurements acquired by NOAA's hurricane-hunter aircraft. From this data set a Geophysical Model Function (GMF) at strong-to-extreme/severe wind speeds (i.e. 20 m s−1 < U10 < 45 m s−1) is derived. Within this wind speed regime, cross-polarized data showed no distinguishable loss of sensitivity and as such, cross-polarized data can be considered a good candidate for the retrieval of strong-to-severe wind speeds from satellite instruments. The upper limit of 45 m s−1 is defined by the currently available collocated data. The validity of the derived relationship between wind speed and VH has been evaluated by comparing the cross polarized signals to two independent wind speed datasets, i.e. short-range ECMWF Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model forecast winds and the NOAA best estimate one-minute maximum sustained winds. Analysis of the three comparison data sets confirm that cross-polarized signals from satellites will enable the retrieval of strong-to-severe wind speeds where VV or horizontal (HH) polarization data has saturated. The VH backscatter increases exponentially with respect to wind speed (linear against VH [dB]) and a near real time assessment of maximum sustained wind speed is possible using VH measurements. VH measurements thus would be an extremely valuable complement on next-generation scatterometers for Hurricane forecast warnings and hurricane model initialization.


Author(s):  
Biao Zhang ◽  
Yiru Lu ◽  
William Perrie ◽  
Guosheng Zhang ◽  
Alexis Mouche

AbstractWe have developed C-band compact polarimetry geophysical model functions for RADARSAT Constellation Mission ocean surface wind speed retrieval. A total of 1594 RADARSAT-2 images acquired in quad-polarization SAR imaging mode were collocated with in situ buoy observations. This data set is first used to simulate compact polarimetric data and to examine their dependencies on radar incidence angle and wind vectors. We find that RR-pol radar backscatters are less sensitive to incidence angles and wind directions but are more dependent on wind speeds, compared to RH-, RV-, and RL-pol. Subsequently, the matchup data pairs are used to derive the coefficients of the transfer functions for the proposed compact polarimetric geophysical model functions, and to validate the associated wind speed retrieval accuracy. Statistical comparisons show that the retrieved wind speeds from CMODRH, CMODRV, CMODRL, CMODRR are in good agreement with buoy measurements, with root mean square errors of 1.38, 1.51, 1.47, 1.25 m/s, respectively. The results suggest that compact polarimetry is a good alternative to linear polarization for wind speed retrieval. CMODRR is more appropriate to retrieve high wind speeds than CMODRH, CMODRV or CMODRL.


2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 272-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biao Zhang ◽  
William Perrie ◽  
Jun A. Zhang ◽  
Eric W. Uhlhorn ◽  
Yijun He

Abstract This study presents a new approach for retrieving hurricane surface wind vectors utilizing C-band dual-polarization (VV, VH) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) observations. The copolarized geophysical model function [C-band model 5.N (CMOD5.N)] and a new cross-polarized wind speed retrieval model for dual polarization [C-band cross-polarized ocean surface wind retrieval model for dual-polarization SAR (C-2POD)] are employed to construct a cost function. Minimization of the cost function allows optimum estimates for the wind speeds and directions. The wind direction ambiguities are removed using a parametric two-dimensional sea surface inflow angle model. To evaluate the accuracy of the proposed method, two RADARSAT-2 SAR images of Hurricanes Bill and Bertha are analyzed. The retrieved wind speeds and directions are compared with collocated Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) winds, showing good consistency. Results suggest that the proposed method has good potential to retrieve hurricane surface wind vectors from dual-polarization SAR observations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 437-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.-J. van Zadelhoff ◽  
A. Stoffelen ◽  
P. W. Vachon ◽  
J. Wolfe ◽  
J. Horstmann ◽  
...  

Abstract. Hurricane-force wind speeds can have a large societal impact and in this paper microwave C-band cross-polarized (VH) signals are investigated to assess if they can be used to derive extreme wind-speed conditions. European satellite scatterometers have excellent hurricane penetration capability at C-band, but the vertically (VV) polarized signals become insensitive above 25 m s−1. VV and VH polarized backscatter signals from RADARSAT-2 SAR imagery acquired during severe hurricane events were compared to collocated SFMR wind measurements acquired by NOAA's hurricane-hunter aircraft. From this data set a geophysical model function (GMF) at strong-to-extreme/severe wind speeds (i.e., 20 m s−1 < U10 < 45 m s−1) is derived. Within this wind speed regime, cross-polarized data showed no distinguishable loss of sensitivity and as such, cross-polarized data can be considered a good candidate for the retrieval of strong-to-severe wind speeds from satellite instruments. The upper limit of 45 m s−1 is defined by the currently available collocated data. The validity of the derived relationship between wind speed and VH backscatter has been evaluated by comparing the cross-polarized signals to two independent wind-speed data sets (i.e., short-range ECMWF numerical weather prediction (NWP) model forecast winds and the NOAA best estimate 1-minute maximum sustained winds). Analysis of the three comparison data sets confirm that cross-polarized signals from satellites will enable the retrieval of strong-to-severe wind speeds where VV or horizontal (HH) polarization data has saturated. The VH backscatter increases exponentially with respect to wind speed (linear against VH [dB]) and a near-real-time assessment of maximum sustained wind speed is possible using VH measurements. VH measurements thus would be an extremely valuable complement on next-generation scatterometers for hurricane forecast warnings and hurricane model initialization.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1832
Author(s):  
Xiaohui Li ◽  
Dongkai Yang ◽  
Jingsong Yang ◽  
Guoqi Han ◽  
Gang Zheng ◽  
...  

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CyGNSS) mission was launched in December 2016, which can remotely sense sea surface wind with a relatively high spatio-temporal resolution for tracking tropical cyclones. In recent years, with the gradual development of the geophysical model function (GMF) for CyGNSS wind retrieval, different versions of CyGNSS Level 2 products have been released and their performance has gradually improved. This paper presents a comprehensive evaluation of CyGNSS wind product v1.1 produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Cross-Calibrated Multi-Platform (CCMP) analysis wind (v02.0 and v02.1 near real time) products produced by Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) were used as the reference. Data pairs between the NOAA CyGNSS and RSS CCMP products were processed and evaluated by the bias and standard deviation SD. The CyGNSS dataset covers the period between May 2017 and December 2020. The statistical comparisons show that the bias and SD of CyGNSS relative to CCMP-nonzero collocations when the flag of CCMP winds is nonzero are –0.05 m/s and 1.19 m/s, respectively. The probability density function (PDF) of the CyGNSS winds coincides with that of CCMP-nonzero. Furthermore, the average monthly bias and SD show that CyGNSS wind is consistent and reliable generally. We found that negative deviation mainly appears at high latitudes in both hemispheres. Positive deviation appears in the China Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the west of Africa and South America. Spatial–temporal analysis demonstrates the geographical anomalies in the bias and SD of the CyGNSS winds, confirming that the wind speed bias shows a temporal dependency. The verification and comparison show that the remotely sensed wind speed measurements from NOAA CyGNSS wind product v1.1 are in good agreement with CCMP winds.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1448 ◽  
Author(s):  
He Fang ◽  
Tao Xie ◽  
William Perrie ◽  
Guosheng Zhang ◽  
Jingsong Yang ◽  
...  

This work discusses the accuracy of C-2PO (C-band cross-polarized ocean backscatter) and CMOD4 (C-band model) geophysical model functions (GMF) for sea surface wind speed retrieval from satellite-born Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images over in the Northwest Pacific off the coast of China. In situ observations are used for comparison of the retrieved wind speed using two established wind retrieval models: C-2PO model and CMOD4 GMF. Using 439 samples from 92 RADARSAT-2 fine quad-polarization SAR images and corresponding reference winds, we created two subset wind speed databases: the training and testing subsets. From the training data subset, we retrieve ocean surface wind speeds (OSWSs) from different models at each polarization and compare with reference wind speeds. The RMSEs of SAR-retrieved wind speeds are: 2.5 m/s: 2.11 m/s (VH-polarized), 2.13 m/s (HV-polarized), 1.86 m/s (VV-polarized) and 2.26 m/s (HH-polarized) and the correlation coefficients are 0.86 (VH-polarized), 0.85(HV-polarized), 0.87(VV-polarized) and 0.83 (HH-polarized), which are statistically significant at the 99.9% significance level. Moreover, we found that OSWSs retrieved using C-2PO model at VH-polarized are most suitable for moderate-to-high winds while CMOD4 GMF at VV-polarized tend to be best for low-to-moderate winds. A hybrid wind retrieval model is put forward composed of the two models, C-2PO and CMOD4 and sets of SAR test data are used in order to establish an appropriate wind speed threshold, to differentiate the wind speed range appropriate for one model from that of the other. The results show that the OSWSs retrieved using our hybrid method has RMSE of 1.66 m/s and the correlation coefficient are 0.9, thereby significantly outperforming both the C-2PO and CMOD4 models.


Author(s):  
I. R. Young ◽  
S. Zieger ◽  
J. Vinoth ◽  
A. V. Babanin

Satellite observations of the ocean surface provide a powerful method for acquiring global data on wind speed and wave height. Radar altimeters have now been in operation for more than 25 years, providing a reasonably long term data set with global coverage. This paper presents data from a fully calibrated and validated altimeter dataset. The dataset provides the basis for obtaining a global perspective of a number of parameters critical to ocean engineering design, ship operations and global climate change. Analysis of the data provides ocean climatology of mean monthly values of wind speed and wave height useful for ship operations. The data set is also sufficiently long to provide extreme value (i.e. 100-year return period) estimates of wind speed and wave height. The paper presents such values and describes the approaches most appropriate to obtain statistically significant extreme value estimates from such satellite data. With a data set of this length, it is possible to investigate whether there have been statistically significant changes in the wind and wave climates over the period. Careful trend analysis of the extensive data set shows that there has been a statistically significant increasing trend in mean wind speed over the period. The corresponding increase in wave height is less clear. There is also evidence to suggest that extreme wind speeds and wave heights are increasing and the data set is analysed to investigate these trends. The paper clearly shows the value of this dataset and its application to a range of engineering problems.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (4B) ◽  
pp. 37-43
Author(s):  
Pham Xuan Thanh ◽  
Nguyen Xuan Anh ◽  
Le Van Luu ◽  
Hiep Van Nguyen ◽  
Hoang Hai Son ◽  
...  

In this paper, the characteristics of wind speed at 20 m height at the Bac Lieu atmospheric physic station (Bac Lieu station) in 2016 were evaluated using the Weibull distribution function. The wind speed data set (every minute) from January 7th  to December 31st, 2016 was used to calculate the two parameters of  Weibull function including Weibull shape factor “k” and Weibull scale factor “c”. The results showed that at the Bac Lieu station in 2016, the values of k and c were 1.69 and 3.91, respectively. Some characteristics of wind speed were also estimated such as wind energy density (Pa/A=57.3 W/m2), wind speed of maximum energy carrier (Vmec=6.2 m/s), the most probable wind speed (Vmp=2.3 m/s), mean wind speed (Vmean­=3.5 m/s)  and standard deviation of wind speeds (s = 2.1 m/s).


Author(s):  
Lei Wang ◽  
Bing Han ◽  
Xinzhe Yuan ◽  
Bin Lei ◽  
Chibiao Ding ◽  
...  

In this paper, we analyze the measurements of the normalized radar cross-section(NRCS) in Wave Mode for Chinese C-band Gaofen-3(GF-3) synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Based on 2779 images from GF-3 quad-polarization SAR in Wave Mode and collocated wind vectors from ERA-Interim, we verify the feasibility of using ocean surface wind fields and VV-polarized NRCS to perform normalized calibration. The method uses well-validated empirical C-band geophysical model function (CMOD4) to estimate the calibration constant for each beam. The Amazon rainforest experiment results show that the accuracy of obtained calibration constant meets the requirements. In addition, the relationship between cross-pol NRCS and wind vectors is discussed. The cross-pol NRCS increases linearly with wind speed and it has an approximate cosine modulation with the wind direction when the wind speed is greater than 8m/s. The cross-polarized system noise floor is low enough to ignore it in wind retrieval. Furthermore, we also investigate the properties of the polarization ratio, denoted PR, and show that it is dependent on incidence angle and azimuth angle. Two empirical models of the PR are fitted, one as a function of incidence angle only, the other with additional dependence on azimuth angle. Assessments show that the &sigma;_VV^0 retrieved from new PR models as well as &sigma;_HH^0 is in good agreement with &sigma;_VV^0 extracted from SAR images directly. And it is also shown that considering the azimuth angle can improve polarization conversion accuracy.


Author(s):  
Muhammad Shoaib ◽  
Saif Ur Rehman ◽  
Imran Siddiqui ◽  
Shafiqur Rehman ◽  
Shamim Khan ◽  
...  

In order to have a reliable estimate of wind energy potential of a site, high frequency wind speed and direction data recorded for an extended period of time is required. Weibull distribution function is commonly used to approximate the recorded data distribution for estimation of wind energy. In the present study a comparison of Weibull function and Gaussian mixture model (GMM) as theoretical functions are used. The data set used for the study consists of hourly wind speeds and wind directions of 54 years duration recorded at Ijmuiden wind site located in north of Holland. The entire hourly data set of 54 years is reduced to 12 sets of hourly averaged data corresponding to 12 months. Authenticity of data is assessed by computing descriptive statistics on the entire data set without average and on monthly 12 data sets. Additionally, descriptive statistics show that wind speeds are positively skewed and most of the wind data points are observed to be blowing in south-west direction. Cumulative distribution and probability density function for all data sets are determined for both Weibull function and GMM. Wind power densities on monthly as well as for the entire set are determined from both models using probability density functions of Weibull function and GMM. In order to assess the goodness-of-fit of the fitted Weibull function and GMM, coefficient of determination (R2) and Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) tests are also determined. Although R2 test values for Weibull function are much closer to ‘1’ compared to its values for GMM. Nevertheless, overall performance of GMM is superior to Weibull function in terms of estimated wind power densities using GMM which are in good agreement with the power densities estimated using wind data for the same duration. It is reported that wind power densities for the entire wind data set are 307 W/m2 and 403.96 W/m2 estimated using GMM and Weibull function, respectively.


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