A Case Study Analysis of Clustering Applied to VAS Measurements
Abstract
This study is a joint effort to test clustering of VISSR Atmospheric Sounder measurements in a more operational setting. The operational setting differs from previous tests of clustering. The clustering technique had to handle VAS measurements which were not spatially continuous, due to operational scanning requirements for skipping certain scan lines. This was handled by considering only those VAS channels which were available at every Field of View. The operational test also dealt with cloud-contaminated FOVs. Clustering can detect cloud-contaminated VAS measurements by treating them as a group and eliminating clusters which are either outliers or which produce suspect soundings. A comparison was made between retrievals produced from clustered VAS measurements to retrievals produced from blocked VAS measurements. Differences between retrievals using the two methods are significant, especially considering the small area of concern. Neither set of retrievals can necessarily be shown to be better, due to a lack of conventional measurements for comparison at such high resolution. However, slight improvements in retrievals can be expected due to increased signal-to-noise of the VAS measurement which are clustered as compared to present blocking schemes.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 07, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADA228926
Entities
People
- Donald W. Hillger
- James F. Purdom
- John S. Snook