Articles | Volume 10, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2009-2017
© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2009-2017
© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| 
06 Jun 2017
Research article |
| 06 Jun 2017
Satellite-based high-resolution mapping of rainfall over southern Africa
Hanna Meyer
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Environmental Informatics, Faculty of Geography, Philipps-University Marburg, Deutschhausstr. 10, 35037 Marburg, Germany
Johannes Drönner
Database Research Group, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, Philipps-University Marburg, Hans-Meerwein-Str. 6, 35032 Marburg, Germany
Thomas Nauss
Environmental Informatics, Faculty of Geography, Philipps-University Marburg, Deutschhausstr. 10, 35037 Marburg, Germany
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Related subject area
Subject: Others (Wind, Precipitation, Temperature, etc.) | Technique: Remote Sensing | Topic: Data Processing and Information Retrieval
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Almudena Velázquez Blázquez, Carlos Domenech, Edward Baudrez, Nicolas Clerbaux, Carla Salas Molar, and Nils Madenach
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The paper presents a comprehensive approach to improve the geolocation accuracy of spaceborne radar and lidar systems, crucial for the successful interpretation of data from the upcoming EarthCARE mission. The paper details the technical background of the presented methods and various examples of geolocation analyses, including a short period of CloudSat observations when the star tracker was not operating properly and lifetime statistics from the CloudSat and CALIPSO missions.
Andreas Walbröl, Hannes J. Griesche, Mario Mech, Susanne Crewell, and Kerstin Ebell
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6223–6245, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6223-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6223-2024, 2024
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We developed retrievals of integrated water vapour (IWV), temperature profiles, and humidity profiles from ground-based passive microwave remote sensing measurements gathered during the MOSAiC expedition. We demonstrate and quantify the benefit of combining low- and high-frequency microwave radiometers to improve humidity profiling and IWV estimates by comparing the retrieved quantities to single-instrument retrievals and reference datasets (radiosondes).
Tessa E. Rosenberger, Thijs Heus, Girish N. Raghunathan, David D. Turner, Timothy J. Wagner, and Julia M. Simonson
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2894, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2894, 2024
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Entrainment is key in understanding temperature and moisture changes within the boundary layer, but it is difficult to observe using ground-based observations. This work used simulations to verify an assumption that simplifies entrainment estimations from ground-based observational data, recognizing that entrainment is the combination of the transfer of heat and moisture from above the boundary layer into it and the change in concentration of heat and moisture as boundary layer depth changes.
Giulia Roccetti, Luca Bugliaro, Felix Gödde, Claudia Emde, Ulrich Hamann, Mihail Manev, Michael Fritz Sterzik, and Cedric Wehrum
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6025–6046, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6025-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6025-2024, 2024
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The amount of sunlight reflected by the Earth’s surface (albedo) is vital for the Earth's radiative system. While satellite instruments offer detailed spatial and temporal albedo maps, they only cover seven wavelength bands. We generate albedo maps that fully span the visible and near-infrared range using a machine learning algorithm. These maps reveal how the reflectivity of different land surfaces varies throughout the year. Our dataset enhances the understanding of the Earth's energy balance.
Ollie Lewis, Chris Brunt, Malcolm Kitchen, Neill E. Bowler, and Edmund K. Stone
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2273, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2273, 2024
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Humidity observations are crucial for an accurate weather forecast. We propose a new way to measure humidity by measuring how radio signals from commercial aircraft are refracted by the atmosphere. Humidity affects the refractive index of air, allowing its presence to be detected. With thousands of flights in the airspace over the United Kingdom every day, there is the potential for a large increase in the number of humidity measurements for use in weather forecasting models.
Dianrun Zhao, Shanshan Du, Chu Zou, Longfei Tian, Meng Fan, Yulu Du, and Liangyun Liu
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3118, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3118, 2024
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The TanSat-2 satellite is designed for global carbon monitoring. It provides high-resolution, dual-band observations of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence, a key indicator of plant photosynthesis. Through simulations, we optimized the satellite's data processing and found it can retrieve this fluorescence with great accuracy. These findings suggest that TanSat-2 will enhance global monitoring of carbon cycles and vegetation health, offering valuable insights for climate change research.
Sebastian Rhode, Peter Preusse, Jörn Ungermann, Inna Polichtchouk, Kaoru Sato, Shingo Watanabe, Manfred Ern, Karlheinz Nogai, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5785–5819, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5785-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5785-2024, 2024
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We investigate the capabilities of a proposed satellite mission, CAIRT, for observing gravity waves throughout the middle atmosphere and present the necessary methodology for in-depth wave analysis. Our findings suggest that such a satellite mission is highly capable of resolving individual wave parameters and could give new insights into the role of gravity waves in general atmospheric circulation and atmospheric processes.
Xiaoye Wang, Jing Xu, Songhua Wu, Qichao Wang, Guangyao Dai, Peizhi Zhu, Zhizhong Su, Sai Chen, Xiaomeng Shi, and Mengqi Fan
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-156, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-156, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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In this paper, we proposed a data fusion method to obtain the no-blind zone wind speed profiles covering the whole Atmospheric Boundary Layer based on the joint measurements of coherent Doppler lidar (CDL), radar wind profiler (RWP) and automatic weather station (AWS). Since above instruments are widely deployed in China, we believe this method has broad application prospects on the improvement of the boundary layer parameterization scheme in numerical forecast models.
Suyoung Sim, Sungwon Choi, Daeseong Jung, Jongho Woo, Nayeon Kim, Sungwoo Park, Honghee Kim, Ukkyo Jeong, Hyunkee Hong, and Kyung-Soo Han
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5601–5618, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5601-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5601-2024, 2024
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This study evaluates the use of background surface reflectance (BSR) derived from a semi-empirical bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) model based on GEMS satellite images. Analysis shows that BSR provides improved accuracy and stability compared to Lambertian-equivalent reflectivity (LER). These results indicate that BSR can significantly enhance climate analysis and air quality monitoring, making it a promising tool for accurate environmental satellite applications.
Daniel Durbin, Yadong Wang, and Pao-Liang Chang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5397–5411, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5397-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5397-2024, 2024
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A method for determining drop size distributions (DSDs) for rain using radar measurements from two frequencies at two polarizations is presented. Following some preprocessing and quality control, radar measurements are incorporated into a model that uses swarm intelligence to seek the most suitable DSD to produce the input measurements.
Witali Krochin, Axel Murk, and Gunter Stober
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5015–5028, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5015-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5015-2024, 2024
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Atmospheric tides are global-scale oscillations with periods of a fraction of a day. Their observation in the middle atmosphere is challenging and rare, as it requires continuous measurements with a high temporal resolution. In this paper, temperature time series of a ground-based microwave radiometer were analyzed with a spectral filter to derive thermal tide amplitudes and phases in an altitude range of 25–50 km at the geographical locations of Payerne and Bern (Switzerland).
Matteo Ottaviani, Gabriel Harris Myers, and Nan Chen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4737–4756, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4737-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4737-2024, 2024
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We analyze simulated polarization observations over snow to investigate the capabilities of remote sensing to determine surface and atmospheric properties in snow-covered regions. Polarization measurements are demonstrated to aid in the determination of snow grain shape, ice crystal roughness, and the vertical distribution of impurities in the snow–atmosphere system, data that are critical for estimating snow albedo for use in climate models.
Yudong Gao, Lidou Huyan, Zheng Wu, and Bojun Liu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4675–4686, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4675-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4675-2024, 2024
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A symmetric error model built by symmetric rain rates handles the non-Gaussian error structure of the reflectivity error. The accuracy and linearization of rain rates can further improve the Gaussianity.
José Alex Zenteno-Hernández, Adolfo Comerón, Federico Dios, Alejandro Rodríguez-Gómez, Constantino Muñoz-Porcar, Michaël Sicard, Noemi Franco, Andreas Behrendt, and Paolo Di Girolamo
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4687–4694, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4687-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4687-2024, 2024
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We study how the spectral characteristics of a solid-state laser in an atmospheric temperature profiling lidar using the Raman technique impact the temperature retrieval accuracy. We find that the spectral widening, with respect to a seeded laser, has virtually no impact, while crystal-rod temperature variations in the laser must be kept within a range of 1 K for the uncertainty in the atmospheric temperature below 1 K. The study is carried out through spectroscopy simulations.
Robert Reichert, Natalie Kaifler, and Bernd Kaifler
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4659–4673, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4659-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4659-2024, 2024
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Imagine you want to determine how quickly the pitch of a passing ambulance’s siren changes. If the vehicle is traveling slowly, the pitch changes only slightly, but if it is traveling fast, the pitch also changes rapidly. In a similar way, the wind in the middle atmosphere modulates the wavelength of atmospheric gravity waves. We have investigated the question of how strong the maximum wind may be so that the change in wavelength can still be determined with the help of wavelet transformation.
Qiang Guo, Yuning Liu, Xin Wang, and Wen Hui
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4613–4627, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4613-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4613-2024, 2024
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Non-linearity (NL) correction is a critical procedure to guarantee that the calibration accuracy of a spaceborne sensor approaches a reasonable level. Different from the classical method, a new NL correction method for a spaceborne Fourier transform spectrometer is proposed. To overcome the inaccurate linear coefficient from two-point calibration influencing NL correction, an iteration algorithm is established that is suitable for NL correction of both infrared and microwave sensors.
Bing Cao, Jennifer S. Haase, Michael J. Murphy Jr., and Anna M. Wilson
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-119, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-119, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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This paper describes an Airborne Radio Occultation (ARO) observation system installed on reconnaissance aircraft that uses GPS signal refraction in the atmosphere to retrieve information about the temperature and moisture in the storm environment as far away as 400 km surrounding the flight track. The characteristics and quality of 1700 ARO refractivity profiles were assessed. These observations are collected to help understand atmospheric rivers and improve their forecasting.
Yuanxin Pan, Grzegorz Kłopotek, Laura Crocetti, Rudi Weinacker, Tobias Sturn, Linda See, Galina Dick, Gregor Möller, Markus Rothacher, Ian McCallum, Vicente Navarro, and Benedikt Soja
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4303–4316, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4303-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4303-2024, 2024
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Crowdsourced smartphone GNSS data were processed with a dedicated data processing pipeline and could produce millimeter-level accurate estimates of zenith total delay (ZTD) – a critical atmospheric variable. This breakthrough not only demonstrates the feasibility of using ubiquitous devices for high-precision atmospheric monitoring but also underscores the potential for a global, cost-effective tropospheric monitoring network.
Almudena Velázquez Blázquez, Edward Baudrez, Nicolas Clerbaux, and Carlos Domenech
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4245–4256, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4245-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4245-2024, 2024
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The Broadband Radiometer measures shortwave and total-wave radiances filtered by the spectral response of the instrument. To obtain unfiltered solar and thermal radiances, the effect of the spectral response needs to be corrected for, done within the BM-RAD processor. Errors in the unfiltering are propagated into fluxes; thus, accurate unfiltering is required for their proper estimation (within BMA-FLX). Unfiltering errors are estimated to be <0.5 % for the shortwave and <0.1 % for the longwave.
Qihou Zhou, Yanlin Li, and Yun Gong
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4197–4209, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4197-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4197-2024, 2024
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We discuss several robust estimators to compute the variance of a normally distributed random variable to deal with interference. Compared to rank-based estimators, the methods based on the geometric mean are more accurate and are computationally more efficient. We apply three robust estimators to incoherent scatter power and velocity processing, along with the traditional sample mean estimator. The best estimator is a hybrid estimator that combines the sample mean and a robust estimator.
Zhao Shi, Yuxiang Wen, and Jianxin He
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4121–4135, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4121-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4121-2024, 2024
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The squall line is a type of convective system. Squall lines are often associated with damaging weather, so identifying and tracking squall lines plays an important role in early meteorological disaster warnings. A clustering-based method is proposed in this article. It can identify the squall lines within the radar scanning range with an accuracy rate of 95.93 %. It can also provide the three-dimensional structure and movement tracking results for each squall line.
Elizabeth N. Smith and Jacob T. Carlin
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4087–4107, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4087-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4087-2024, 2024
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Boundary-layer height observations remain sparse in time and space. In this study we create a new fuzzy logic method for synergistically combining boundary-layer height estimates from a suite of instruments. These estimates generally compare well to those from radiosondes; plus, the approach offers near-continuous estimates through the entire diurnal cycle. Suspected reasons for discrepancies are discussed. The code for the newly presented fuzzy logic method is provided for the community to use.
Laura Bianco, Bianca Adler, Ludovic Bariteau, Irina V. Djalalova, Timothy Myers, Sergio Pezoa, David D. Turner, and James M. Wilczak
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3933–3948, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3933-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3933-2024, 2024
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The Tropospheric Remotely Observed Profiling via Optimal Estimation physical retrieval is used to retrieve temperature and humidity profiles from various combinations of passive and active remote sensing instruments, surface platforms, and numerical weather prediction models. The retrieved profiles are assessed against collocated radiosonde in non-cloudy conditions to assess the sensitivity of the retrievals to different input combinations. Case studies with cloudy conditions are also inspected.
Björn Linder, Peter Preusse, Qiuyu Chen, Ole Martin Christensen, Lukas Krasauskas, Linda Megner, Manfred Ern, and Jörg Gumbel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3829–3841, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3829-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3829-2024, 2024
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The Swedish research satellite MATS (Mesospheric Airglow/Aerosol Tomography and Spectroscopy) is designed to study atmospheric waves in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. These waves perturb the temperature field, and thus, by observing three-dimensional temperature fluctuations, their properties can be quantified. This pre-study uses synthetic MATS data generated from a general circulation model to investigate how well wave properties can be retrieved.
Jie Gong, Dong Liang Wu, Michelle Badalov, Manisha Ganeshan, and Minghua Zheng
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-973, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-973, 2024
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Marine boundary layer water vapor is among the key factors to couple the ocean and atmosphere, but it is also among the hardest to retrieve from satellite remote sensing perspective. Here we propose a novel way to retrieve MPBL specific humidity profiles using the GNSS Level-1 signal-to-noise ratio. Using a machine learning approach, we successfully obtained a retrieval product that outperforms the ERA-5 reanalysis and operational Level-2 retrievals globally except in the deep tropics.
Gia Huan Pham, Shu-Chih Yang, Chih-Chien Chang, Shu-Ya Chen, and Cheng Yung Huang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3605–3623, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3605-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3605-2024, 2024
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This research examines the characteristics of low-level GNSS radio occultation (RO) refractivity bias over ocean and land and its dependency on the RO retrieval uncertainty, atmospheric temperature, and moisture. We propose methods for estimating the region-dependent refractivity bias. Our methods can be applied to calibrate the refractivity bias under different atmospheric conditions and thus improve the applications of the GNSS RO data in the deep troposphere.
Cited articles
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Benas, N., Finkensieper, S., Stengel, M., van Zadelhoff, G.-J., Hanschmann, T., Hollmann, R., and Meirink, J. F.: The MSG-SEVIRI based cloud property data record CLAAS-2, Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2017-9, in review, 2017.
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Short summary
A spatially explicit mapping of rainfall is required for southern Africa but obtaining accurate estimates is still a challenging task. We estimated hourly rainfall based on optical satellite data and neural networks. The results indicated that the majority of rainfall events could be captured by the model, but with a clear tendency to overestimate rainfall. Despite being a comparably simple approach, the presented rainfall retrieval could outperform a complex global rainfall product.
A spatially explicit mapping of rainfall is required for southern Africa but obtaining accurate...
