Open AccessScatterometers observe the variation of the Walker circulation
Author(s) -
Pan Jiayi,
Yan XiaoHai,
Zheng Quanan,
Liu W. Timothy
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/01eo00320
Subject(s) - scatterometer , empirical orthogonal functions , climatology , meteorology , data set , circulation (fluid dynamics) , satellite , environmental science , remote sensing , wind speed , geology , geography , computer science , physics , astronomy , artificial intelligence , thermodynamics
The variation of the Walker circulation is closely related to the onset of El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events [ Kousky , 1984], so observing the Walker circulation can lead to better understanding of ENSO events. Wind data from the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT), Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT), and European Remote Sensing Satellite‐1/2 (ERS‐1/2) were merged into one data set in a 1°×1° grid covering a period from January 1992 to December 2000. The study region was confined to the tropical oceans between 20°S and 20°N. The vector empirical orthogonal function (VEOF) method [ Hardy and Walton , 1978] was used to process the wind data set and extract principal modes of the wind fields.