Open AccessDevelopment of scatterometer‐derived surface pressures for the Southern Ocean
Author(s) -
Hilburn Kyle A.,
Bourassa Mark A.,
O'Brien James J.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: oceans
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2003jc001772
Subject(s) - scatterometer , environmental science , satellite , climatology , storm , atmospheric research , meteorology , surface pressure , geology , wind speed , geography , aerospace engineering , engineering
High‐resolution, research‐quality surface pressures are objectively calculated over the Southern Ocean using winds derived from the SeaWinds scatterometer on the QuikSCAT satellite. The pressure fields are validated in comparison to in situ observations. Overall, the scatterometer‐derived surface pressures are a small improvement over the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) reanalysis, which is used as the objective technique's background field. This improvement is understated primarily because the comparison data undersample storms. Instances are found where the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis misses storms entirely and the scatterometer‐derived pressures are a large improvement (as much as 20 hPa).