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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Scatterometer Contamination Mitigation, Michael Paul Owen
Scatterometer Contamination Mitigation, Michael Paul Owen
Theses and Dissertations
Microwave scatterometers, which use radar backscatter measurements to infer the near-surface wind vector, are unique in their ability to monitor global wind vectors at high resolutions. However, scatterometer observations which are contaminated by land proximity or rain events produce wind estimates which have increased bias and variability, making them unreliable for many applications. Fortunately, the effects of these sources of contamination can be mitigated. Land contamination of backscatter measurements occurs when land partially fills the antenna illumination area. This reduces and masks the wind-induced backscatter signal. Land contamination is mitigated by quantifying the amount of contamination in a single observation …
Signal Processing Methods For Ultra-High Resolution Scatterometry, Brent A. Williams
Signal Processing Methods For Ultra-High Resolution Scatterometry, Brent A. Williams
Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation approaches high resolution scatterometry from a new perspective. Three related general topics are addressed: high resolution σ^0 imaging, wind estimation from high resolution σ^0 images over the ocean, and high resolution wind estimation directly from the scatterometer measurements. Theories of each topic are developed, and previous approaches are generalized and formalized. Improved processing algorithms for these theories are developed, implemented for particular scatterometers, and analyzed. Specific results and contributions are noted below. The σ^0 imaging problem is approached as the inversion of a noisy aperture-filtered sampling operation-extending the current theory to deal explicitly with noise. A maximum aposteriori …
A C-Band Scatterometer Simultaneous Wind/Rain Retrieval Method, David G. Long, Congling Nie
A C-Band Scatterometer Simultaneous Wind/Rain Retrieval Method, David G. Long, Congling Nie
Faculty Publications
Using collocated ERS scatterometer (ESCAT), Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR), and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) data, the effects of rain on ESCAT wind-only retrieval are evaluated. Additional scattering from rain causes estimated wind speeds to appear higher than expected. Selected directions of the rain-corrupted wind vectors are biased toward along-track directions under conditions of heavy rain, which is regardless of the true wind direction. Rain becomes more significant for data acquired at a high incidence angle. To compensate for rain-induced backscatter, a simultaneous wind/rain retrieval (SWRR) method, which simultaneously retrieves wind velocity and surface …
Estimation Of Hurricane Winds From Seawinds At Ultrahigh Resolution, David G. Long, Brent A. Williams
Estimation Of Hurricane Winds From Seawinds At Ultrahigh Resolution, David G. Long, Brent A. Williams
Faculty Publications
Although the SeaWinds scatterometer was not specifically designed to observe tropical cyclones, new high-resolution wind products resolve much of the horizontal structure of these storms. However, these higher resolution products (2.5 km) are inherently noisier than the standard 25-km near-surface wind products. These noise levels combined with rain contamination complicate high-resolution wind estimation-particularly in tropical cyclones. Fortunately, tropical cyclones have structures that can be exploited by using a wind field model. This paper develops a new procedure for hurricane wind field estimation from the SeaWinds instrument at ultrahigh resolution. A simplified hurricane model is developed to provide prior information to …
A Wind And Rain Backscatter Model Derived From Amsr And Seawinds Data, Seth Niels Nielsen
A Wind And Rain Backscatter Model Derived From Amsr And Seawinds Data, Seth Niels Nielsen
Theses and Dissertations
The SeaWinds scatterometers aboard the QuikSCAT and ADEOS II satellites were originally designed to measure wind vectors over the ocean by exploiting the relationship between wind-induced surface roughening and the normalized radar backscatter cross-section. Recently, an algorithm for simultaneously retrieving wind and rain (SWR) from scatterometer measurements was developed that enables SeaWinds to correct rain-corrupted wind measurements and retrieve rain rate data. This algorithm is based on co-locating Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Precipitation Radar (TRMM PR) and SeaWinds on QuikSCAT data. In this thesis, a new wind and rain radar backscatter model is developed for the SWR algorithm using a …
Wind Speed Effect On L-Band Brightness Temperature Inferred From Eurostarrs And Wise 2001 Field Experiments, David G. Long, Jacqueline Etcheto, Emmanuel P. Dinnat, Jacqueline Boutin, Adriano Camps, Stephanie Contardo, J. Wesson, Jordi Font, J. Miller
Wind Speed Effect On L-Band Brightness Temperature Inferred From Eurostarrs And Wise 2001 Field Experiments, David G. Long, Jacqueline Etcheto, Emmanuel P. Dinnat, Jacqueline Boutin, Adriano Camps, Stephanie Contardo, J. Wesson, Jordi Font, J. Miller
Faculty Publications
The results from two field experiments in the Mediterranean Sea are used to study the wind speed dependence of brightness temperature at L-band. During the EuroSTARRS airborne experiment, an L-band radiometer made measurements across a large wind speed gradient, enabling us to study this dependence at high wind speed. We compare our results with a two-scale emissivity model using several representations of the sea state spectrum. While the results are encouraging, unfortunately the accuracy of the measurements does not permit us to distinguish between the so-called twice Durden and Vesecky spectrum and the Elfouhaily spectrum above 7 m X s-1. …
Evaluating The Effect Of Rain On Seawinds Scatterometer Measurements, David G. Long, David Draper
Evaluating The Effect Of Rain On Seawinds Scatterometer Measurements, David G. Long, David Draper
Faculty Publications
A simple wind/rain backscatter model is used with co-located precipitation radar (PR) data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite to evaluate the effect of rain on SeaWinds on QuikSCAT σ° observations. The model incorporates wind-induced surface scattering, the surface rain perturbation, and atmospheric rain attenuation and scattering. The co-located PR measurements afford direct computation of SeaWinds-scale averaged rain rate and atmospheric rain attenuation and scattering. An estimate of the wind-induced surface backscatter is computed via numerical weather prediction (NWP) winds. By synergistically combining the SeaWinds, NWP, and PR data, estimates of surface rain perturbation and combined surface/atmospheric scattering …
High-Resolution Measurements With A Spaceborne Pencil-Beam Scatterometer Using Combined Range/Doppler Discrimination Techniques, David G. Long, Michael W. Spencer, Wu-Yang Tsai
High-Resolution Measurements With A Spaceborne Pencil-Beam Scatterometer Using Combined Range/Doppler Discrimination Techniques, David G. Long, Michael W. Spencer, Wu-Yang Tsai
Faculty Publications
Conically scanning pencil-beam scatterometer systems, such as the SeaWinds radar, constitute an important class of instruments for spaceborne climate observation. In addition to ocean winds, scatterometer data are being applied to a wide range of land and cryospheric applications. A key issue for future scatterometer missions is improved spatial resolution. Pencil-beam scatterometers to date have been real-aperture systems where only range discrimination is used, resulting in a relatively coarse resolution of approximately 25 km. In this paper, the addition of Doppler discrimination techniques is proposed to meet the need for higher resolution. The unique issues associated with the simultaneous application …
An Advanced Ambiguity Selection Algorithm For Seawinds, David G. Long, David W. Draper
An Advanced Ambiguity Selection Algorithm For Seawinds, David G. Long, David W. Draper
Faculty Publications
SeaWinds on QuikSCAT, a spaceborne Ku-band scatterometer, estimates ocean winds via the relationship between the normalized radar backscatter and the vector wind. Scatterometer wind retrieval generates several possible wind vector solutions or ambiguities at each resolution cell, requiring a separate ambiguity selection step to give a unique solution. In processing SeaWinds on QuikSCAT data, the ambiguity selection is "nudged" or initialized using numerical weather prediction winds. We describe a sophisticated new ambiguity selection approach developed at Brigham Young University (BYU) that does not require nudging. The BYU method utilizes a low-order data-driven Karhunen-Loeve wind field model to promote self-consistency. Ambiguity …
An Assessment Of Seawinds On Quikscat Wind Retrieval, David Draper, David G. Long
An Assessment Of Seawinds On Quikscat Wind Retrieval, David Draper, David G. Long
Faculty Publications
The scatterometer ocean wind retrieval process produces several possible solutions or ambiguities at each point, requiring a separate ambiguity selection step to infer a unique wind vector field. An ambiguity selection error occurs when the selected wind vector is not the closest ambiguity to the true wind. The current ambiguity selection routine for SeaWinds is ad hoc, but performs well under most circumstances. Factors such as instrument noise and rain can also cause the estimated wind flow to deviate from the true wind. A quality assurance (QA) analysis is performed to assess the ambiguity selection effectiveness and noise level of …
Improved Resolution Backscatter Measurements With The Seawinds Pencil-Beam Scatterometer, David G. Long, Michael W. Spencer, Chialin T. Wu
Improved Resolution Backscatter Measurements With The Seawinds Pencil-Beam Scatterometer, David G. Long, Michael W. Spencer, Chialin T. Wu
Faculty Publications
The SeaWinds scatterometer was launched on the NASA QuikSCAT spacecraft in June 1999 and is planned for the Japanese ADEOS-II mission in 2000. In addition to generating a global Ku-band backscatter data set useful for a variety of climate studies, these flights will provide ocean-surface wind estimates for use in operational weather forecasting. SeaWinds employs a compact "pencil-beam" design rather than the "fan-beam" approach previously used with SASS on Seasat, NSCAT on ADEOS-I, and the AMI scatterometer on ERS-1, 2. As originally envisioned and reported, the resolution of the SeaWinds backscatter measurements were to be antenna-beamwidth limited. In order to …
Accuracy Of Scatterometer-Derived Winds Using The Cramer-Rao Bound, David G. Long, Travis E. Oliphant
Accuracy Of Scatterometer-Derived Winds Using The Cramer-Rao Bound, David G. Long, Travis E. Oliphant
Faculty Publications
A wind scatterometer makes measurements of the normalized radar-backscatter coefficient O of the ocean surface. To retrieve the wind, a geophysical model function (GMF), which relates O to the near-surface wind, is used. The wind vector can be estimated using maximum-likelihood techniques from several O measurements made at different azimuth angles. The probability density of the measured O is assumed to be Gaussian with a variance that depends on the true O and therefore, depends on the wind through the GMF. With this model for wind estimation, the Cramer-Rao (C-R) bound is derived for wind estimation, and its implications for …
Postlaunch Sensor Verification And Calibration Of The Nasa Scatterometer, David G. Long, Wu-Yang Tsai, James E. Graf, Carroll Winn, James N. Huddleston, R. Scott Dunbar, Michael H. Freilich, Frank J. Wentz, W. Linwood Jones
Postlaunch Sensor Verification And Calibration Of The Nasa Scatterometer, David G. Long, Wu-Yang Tsai, James E. Graf, Carroll Winn, James N. Huddleston, R. Scott Dunbar, Michael H. Freilich, Frank J. Wentz, W. Linwood Jones
Faculty Publications
Scatterometer instruments are active microwave sensors that transmit a series of microwave pulses and measure the returned echo power to determine the normalized radar backscattering cross section (sigma-0) of the ocean surface from which the speed and direction of near-surface ocean winds are derived. The NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) was launched on board the ADEOS spacecraft in August 1996 and returned ten months of high-quality data before the failure of the ADEOS spacecraft terminated the data stream in June 1997. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the NSCAT instrument and sigma-0 computation and to describe the …
Tradeoffs In The Design Of A Spaceborne Scanning Pencil Beam Scatterometer: Application To Seawinds, David G. Long, Chialin T. Wu, Michael W. Spencer
Tradeoffs In The Design Of A Spaceborne Scanning Pencil Beam Scatterometer: Application To Seawinds, David G. Long, Chialin T. Wu, Michael W. Spencer
Faculty Publications
SeaWinds is a spaceborne wind scatterometer to be flown on the second Japanese Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS-II) in 1999. An important international element of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS), SeaWinds is an advanced follow-on to the NASA scatterometer (NSCAT) on the first ADEOS platform. Unlike previous operational spaceborne scatterometer systems. SeaWinds employs a scanning "pencil-beam" antenna rather than a "fan-beam" antenna, making the instrument more compact and yielding greater ocean coverage. The goals of this paper are twofold. First, the overall SeaWinds functional design and backscatter measurement approach are described, and the relative advantages of the pencil-beam technique are …
Radar Backscatter Measurement Accuracy For A Spaceborne Pencil-Beam Wind Scatterometer With Transmit Modulation, David G. Long, Michael W. Spencer
Radar Backscatter Measurement Accuracy For A Spaceborne Pencil-Beam Wind Scatterometer With Transmit Modulation, David G. Long, Michael W. Spencer
Faculty Publications
Scatterometers are remote sensing radars designed to measure near-surface winds over the ocean. The difficulties of accommodating traditional fan-beam scatterometers on spacecraft has lead to the development of a scanning pencil-beam instrument known as SeaWinds. SeaWinds will be part of the Japanese Advanced Earth Observing Satellite II (ADEOS-II) to be launched in 1999. To analyze the performance of the SeaWinds design, a new expression for the measurement accuracy of a pencil-beam system is required. In this paper the authors derive a general expression for the backscatter measurement accuracy for a pencil-beam scatterometer which includes the effects of transmit signal modulation …
Calibration Of Spaceborne Scatterometers Using Tropical Rain Forests, David G. Long, Gary B. Skouson
Calibration Of Spaceborne Scatterometers Using Tropical Rain Forests, David G. Long, Gary B. Skouson
Faculty Publications
Wind scatterometers are radar systems designed specifically to measure the normalized radar backscatter coefficient (O) of the ocean's surface in order to determine the near-surface wind vector. Postlaunch calibration of a wind scatterometer can be performed with an extended-area natural target such as the Amazon tropical rain forest. Rain forests exhibit a remarkably high degree of homogeneity in their radar response over a very large area though some spatial and temporal variability exist. The authors present a simple technique for calibrating scatterometer data using tropical rain forests, Using a polynomial model for the rolloff of O with incidence angle, the …
Spaceborne Radar Measurement Of Wind Velocity Over The Ocean-An Overview Of The Nscat Scatterometer System, David G. Long, F. M. Naderi, Michael H. Freilich
Spaceborne Radar Measurement Of Wind Velocity Over The Ocean-An Overview Of The Nscat Scatterometer System, David G. Long, F. M. Naderi, Michael H. Freilich
Faculty Publications
Scatterometry and scatterometer design issues are reviewed. The design of the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) to be flown on the Japanese ADEOS mission is presented. Building on Seasat experience, the NSCAT system includes several enhancements, such as three antenna azimuths in each of two swaths, and an onboard digital Doppler processor to allow backscatter measurements to be colocated everywhere within the orbit. These enhancements will greatly increase the quality of the NSCAT wind data. The ground processing of data is discussed, and scatterometers of the next decade are briefly described.
Identifiability In Wind Estimation From Scatterometer Measurements, David G. Long, Jerry M. Mendel
Identifiability In Wind Estimation From Scatterometer Measurements, David G. Long, Jerry M. Mendel
Faculty Publications
The problem of identifiability of a wind vector that is estimated from wind scatterometer measurements of the radar backscatter of the ocean's surface is addressed. The traditional wind estimation approach produces multiple estimates of the wind direction. A second processing step, known as dealiasing or ambiguity removal, is used to select a single wind estimate from these multiple solutions. Dealiasing is typically based on various ad hoc considerations. The traditional wind estimation approach results in multiple solutions associated with local minima in an objective function formed from the noisy backscatter measurements. The authors discuss the question of the uniqueness of …
Model-Based Estimation Of Wind Fields Over The Ocean From Wind Scatterometer Measurements. I. Development Of The Wind Field Model, David G. Long, Jerry M. Mendel
Model-Based Estimation Of Wind Fields Over The Ocean From Wind Scatterometer Measurements. I. Development Of The Wind Field Model, David G. Long, Jerry M. Mendel
Faculty Publications
For pt.II see ibid., vol.28, no.3, p.361-373 (1990). A parametric model for near-surface mesoscale wind fields suitable for use in a model-based approach to estimate the wind field over a large region of the scatterometer measurement swath from measurements of the radar backscatter of the ocean's surface is discussed. The assumptions made in developing the model are described, and the accuracy of the resulting model is evaluated. The model is based only on scatterometer data and is computationally tractable, consisting of a linear equation relating the near-surface wind field to a vector of model parameters which is estimated from the …
Model-Based Estimation Of Wind Fields Over The Ocean From Wind Scatterometer Measurements. Ii. Model Parameter Estimation, David G. Long, Jerry M. Mendel
Model-Based Estimation Of Wind Fields Over The Ocean From Wind Scatterometer Measurements. Ii. Model Parameter Estimation, David G. Long, Jerry M. Mendel
Faculty Publications
For pt.I see ibid., vol.28, no.3, p.349-360 (1990). The feasibility of a model-based approach to wind field estimation is discussed. In this approach the parametric model for near-surface mesoscale wind fields developed in pt.I is used. The parameters of the model are estimated from the wind scatterometer measurements; the wind field estimate is then computed from the estimated model parameters. Unlike the traditional pointwise approach, this approach takes advantage of the inherent correlation in the winds at different sample points to estimate the wind field more accurately and resolve directional ambiguity. The accuracies of wind field estimates obtained using the …