Direct Determination of Wind Shears from the Gradients of Satellite Radiance Observations.
Abstract
To the extent that the wind field is close to geostrophic, the thermal wind is a good approximation of the vertical wind shear (vertical variation of the horizontal wind). And since the thermal wind is proportional to the horizontal temperature gradient, the possibility exists of determining it from satellite radiance observations. Several different methods are developed for retrieving thermal winds directly from the horizontal gradients of satellite radiance observations. The methods are applied to the determination of thermal winds in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere over the White Sands Missile Range area. A special series of about 30 concurrent sets of radiance observations from the NOAA-4 VTPR instrument and wind shears from radiosonde observations, distributed throughout one year, is used for these tests. The results obtained with these direct methods are compared with results obtained with: (1) a traditional method, in which temperature profiles are first retrieved from the satellite radiances and the thermal winds are then obtained from the horizontal gradients of the retrieved temperatures, and (2) a linear regression between observed radiance gradients and observed wind shears.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1980
- Accession Number
- ADA099890
Entities
People
- Binyamin Neeman
- George Ohring
Organizations
- Tel Aviv University