Operational Utilization of High Resolution Ocean Surface Wind Vectors (25km or Better) in the Marine Forecasting Environment

Abstract

The work proposed here seeks to exploit currently and soon to be available satellite ocean surface vector wind data in the operational weather forecasting environment. This work will build upon an ongoing effort to quantify the impacts of QuikSCAT ocean vector wind data in the operational short-term warnings and forecasts issued by the NWS Ocean Prediction Center (OPC), and extends the effort to include the NWS Tropical Prediction Center and OCENS, Inc, a small company specializing in ocean and weather monitoring tools and services for the commercial and recreational marine users. In addition to the standard 25km wind vector products from QuikSCAT, this effort will also investigate the impacts of higher spatial resolution wind vector products (12.5km and higher) and the wind vector retrieval capabilities of WindSAT, a polarimetric microwave radiometer. This effort aims to operationally generate and distribute a gridded wind vector analysis and forecast product out of the OPC and TPC to end user participants (US Coast Guard and OCENS Inc.) who will provide feedback on the product impacts and utility. The National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS) will generate and provide a gridded wind field product utilizing all available satellite remote sensing data to the MPC and the TPC. These gridded wind field products will cover the areas of responsibility (AORs) for OPC and TPC, and will serve as the basis for the gridded wind vector analysis and forecast products generated by OPC and TPC. We also seek to investigate improvements to the currently available standard wind vector product that will yield positive impacts in its operational utilization. In particular, ambiguity removal processing and quality flagging improvements in adverse weather conditions will be studied along with the potential of retrieving higher resolution (< 25km) wind vector products.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2003
Accession Number
ADA484442

Entities

People

  • David G. Long
  • Joseph Sienkiewicz
  • Mark Freeberg
  • Paul S Chang
  • Peter W. Gaiser
  • Richard Knabb

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artificial Satellites
  • Beta Testing
  • Coast Guard
  • Delphi Method
  • Detectors
  • Electronic Mail
  • Environment
  • Feedback
  • High Resolution
  • Measurement
  • National Security
  • Remote Sensing
  • Scatterometers
  • Security
  • Standards
  • Vector Analysis
  • Weather Forecasting

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Atmospheric Remote Sensing.
  • Atmospheric Science/Meteorology
  • Maritime Security/Maritime Homeland Security

Technology Areas

  • Space