Validation of the Aeolus Level-2B wind product over Northern Canada and the Arctic

Chou, Chih-Chun; Kushner, Paul J.; Laroche, Stéphane; Mariani, Zen; Rodriguez, Peter; Melo, Stella; Fletcher, Christopher G.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4443-2022

Articles | Volume 15, issue 15

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4443-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Aeolus data and their application (AMT/ACP/WCD inter-journal...

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4443-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 15

Research article

|

02 Aug 2022

Research article |

| 02 Aug 2022

Validation of the Aeolus Level-2B wind product over Northern Canada and the Arctic

Chih-Chun Chou, Paul J. Kushner, Stéphane Laroche, Zen Mariani, Peter Rodriguez, Stella Melo, and Christopher G. Fletcher

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4443-2022-supplement

Data sets

ERA5 hourly data on pressure levels from 1959 to present H. Hersbach, B. Bell, P. Berrisford, G. Biavati, A. Horányi, J. Muñoz Sabater, J. Nicolas, C. Peubey, R. Radu, I. Rozum, D. Schepers, A. Simmons, C. Soci, D. Dee, and J.-N. Thépaut https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.bd0915c6

Radiosonde data L. Oolman http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html

Short summary

Aeolus is the first satellite that provides global wind profile measurements. The mission aims to improve the weather forecasts in the tropics, but also, potentially, in the polar regions. We evaluate the performance of the instrument over the Canadian North and the Arctic by comparing its measured winds in both cloudy and non-cloudy layers to wind data from forecasts, reanalysis, and ground-based instruments. Overall, good agreement was seen, but Aeolus winds have greater dispersion.