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An improved algorithm for atmospheric wind retrievals from satellite soundings over the polar regions
Author(s) -
Zheng Weizhong,
Zou ChengZhi
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2005gl025197
Subject(s) - radiosonde , troposphere , satellite , thermal wind , environmental science , meteorology , data assimilation , planetary boundary layer , wind speed , polar , remote sensing , algorithm , atmospheric sciences , geology , wind profile power law , turbulence , computer science , physics , astronomy
In this study, an improved algorithm to retrieve atmospheric winds from satellite temperature soundings over the polar region is developed. The algorithm utilizes a thermal wind relationship plus a planetary boundary layer parameterization to represent the basic atmospheric dynamics over the polar regions. With given temperature profiles, a first‐guess wind profile is derived from the basic dynamics. Lagrange multipliers in a variational formalism are then used to force the first‐guess wind to conserve mass. To estimate the algorithm accuracy, wind retrievals based on temperature profiles from the Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) are compared with the wind observations from 13 radiosonde stations around the Antarctic coast. The results demonstrate that the wind retrievals exhibit mean absolute errors about 1 m sec −1 for the 13 stations in the troposphere and the root‐mean‐square errors are greater than the GDAS assimilated winds by about 0.5 m sec −1 .