Comparison of oceanic winds measured by space-borne scatterometers and altimeters

Abstract

Global ocean surface wind speeds from Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) for 5 years (2005–2009) and from Oceansat-2 Scatterometer (OSCAT) for 1 year (2010) were compared with wind speeds estimated from JASON Altimeters for representative months to investigate the consistency in wind speeds between these sensors. The comparison was carried out through statistical analyses. The spatial window used for comparison with JASON was 0.25° for QuikSCAT and 0.5° for OSCAT, while the temporal window for both QuikSCAT and OSCAT was ±30 min. The results of the inter-comparison indicate that OSCAT wind speeds are almost as consistent with JASON as QuikSCAT wind speeds.

Acknowledgements

The Director, Space Applications Centre, and Director, Gujarat National Law University, are gratefully acknowledged for their encouragement and support. We thank RADS, PO.DAAC and NRSC for the JASON, QuikSCAT and OSCAT data, respectively. We also thank Dr B.S. Gohil and Mr S. Rajesh for their support.