Keywords
Maximum likelihood, Microwave Imager, SeaWinds, TMI, TRMM, Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, scatterometer, simultaneous wind/rain retrieval, water
Abstract
While SeaWinds was designed to measure ocean winds, it can also measure rain over the ocean. SeaWinds on QuikSCAT active measurements of integrated columnar rain rate obtained via simultaneous wind/rain retrieval are evaluated via Monte Carlo simulation and the Cramer-Rao lower bound on estimate accuracy. Although sufficiently accurate in many conditions, the simultaneous wind/rain retrieval method used with SeaWinds on QuikSCAT data is ill-conditioned for certain wind directions and measurement geometries, sometimes yielding spurious rain rates in zero-rain conditions. To assess the validity of SeaWinds-derived rain rates, a simple empirically based rain thresholding scheme is presented, derived from simulated data. Thresholded QuikSCAT rain rates are compared to Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Microwave Imager monthly-averaged data, demonstrating good correlation for monthly-averaged data.
Original Publication Citation
Draper, D. W., and D. G. Long. "Assessing the Quality of SeaWinds Rain Measurements." Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on 42.7 (24): 1424-32
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Long, David G. and Draper, David W., "Assessing the quality of SeaWinds rain measurements" (2004). Faculty Publications. 427.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/427
Document Type
Peer-Reviewed Article
Publication Date
2004-07-01
Permanent URL
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/1020
Publisher
IEEE
Language
English
College
Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology
Department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Copyright Status
© 2004 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.
Copyright Use Information
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