Articles | Volume 18, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-265-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-265-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
16 Jan 2025
Research article |
| 16 Jan 2025
| 16 Jan 2025
The added value and potential of long-term radio occultation data for climatological wind field monitoring
Irena Nimac
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change, University of Graz, Graz, 8010, Austria
Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change, University of Graz, Graz, 8010, Austria
Gottfried Kirchengast
Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change, University of Graz, Graz, 8010, Austria
Institute of Physics, University of Graz, Graz, 8010, Austria
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As global wind measurements are limited by low spatial coverage or lack of vertical profile information, radio occultation (RO) satellite data might be of help. Wind fields are indirectly retrieved using the geostrophic approximation. We first test how well the method performs, finding agreement better than 2 m/s in wind speed. In a second step, we investigate how good RO and reanalysis data compare. The results suggest that RO-derived wind fields provide added value for climate monitoring.
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Karina von Schuckmann, Lijing Cheng, Matthew D. Palmer, James Hansen, Caterina Tassone, Valentin Aich, Susheel Adusumilli, Hugo Beltrami, Tim Boyer, Francisco José Cuesta-Valero, Damien Desbruyères, Catia Domingues, Almudena García-García, Pierre Gentine, John Gilson, Maximilian Gorfer, Leopold Haimberger, Masayoshi Ishii, Gregory C. Johnson, Rachel Killick, Brian A. King, Gottfried Kirchengast, Nicolas Kolodziejczyk, John Lyman, Ben Marzeion, Michael Mayer, Maeva Monier, Didier Paolo Monselesan, Sarah Purkey, Dean Roemmich, Axel Schweiger, Sonia I. Seneviratne, Andrew Shepherd, Donald A. Slater, Andrea K. Steiner, Fiammetta Straneo, Mary-Louise Timmermans, and Susan E. Wijffels
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Short summary
Due to the shortcomings of available observations, having accurate global 3D wind fields remains a challenge. A promising option is radio occultation (RO) satellite data, which enable the derivation of winds based on wind approximations. We test how well RO winds describe the ERA5 winds. We separate the total wind difference into the approximation bias and the systematic difference between the two datasets. The results show the utility of RO winds for climate monitoring and analyses.
Due to the shortcomings of available observations, having accurate global 3D wind fields remains...
