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The aim of this study is to investigate the sea surface temperature (SST) cooling as typhoons pass the Kuroshio Current. A numerical circulation model, denoted as the Stony Brook Parallel Ocean Model (sbPOM), was used to simulate the SST, which includes four wave-induced effect terms (i.e., radiation stress, nonbreaking waves, Stokes drift, and breaking waves) simulated using the third-generation wave model, called WAVEWATCH-III (WW3). The significant wave height (SWH) measurements from the Jason-2 altimeter were used to validate the WW3-simulated results, yielding a root mean square error (RMSE) of less than 0.50 m and a correlation coefficient (COR) of approximately 0.93. The water temperature measured from the Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite was applied to validate the model simulation. Accordingly, the RMSE of the SST is 0.92°C with a COR of approximately 0.99. As revealed in the sbPOM-simulated SST fields, a reduction in the SST at the Kuroshio Current region was observed as a typhoon passed, although the water temperature of the Kuroshio Current is relatively high. The variation of the SST is consistent with that of the current, whereas the maximum SST lagged behind the occurrence of the peak SWH. Moreover, the Stokes drift plays an important role in the SST cooling after analyzing four wave-induced terms in the background of the Kuroshio Current. The sensitivity experiment also showed that the accuracy of the water temperature was significantly reduced when including breaking waves, which play a negative role in the inside part of the ocean. The variation in the mean mixing layer depth (MLD) showed that a typhoon could enhance the mean MLD in the Kuroshio Current area in September and October, whereas a typhoon has little influence on the mean MLD in the Kuroshio Current area in May. Moreover, the mean MLD rapidly decreased with the weakening of the strong wind force and wave-induced effects when a typhoon crossed the Kuroshio Current. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of sea surface waves as they pass through oil slicks. The parameterized first-guess spectrum method (PFSM) theory-based wave retrieval algorithm was applied to 20 images of horizontal-horizontal (HH) polarization obtained using the phased-array L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) (PALSAR) on the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS-1). The images were collocated with simulations from the WAVEWATCH-III (WW3) model in a 0.1° grid using the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis (ERA-5) winds data as the forcing field. The validation of the model-simulated significant wave height (SWH) against the measurements from the Jason-2 altimeter produced a 0.66 m root mean square error (RMSE) for the SWH, with a coefficient (COR) 0.74. In this sense, the WW3-simulated waves were reliable for our work. A comparison between the SAR retrieval results and the WW3 simulations was performed using the dataset for the regions without oil slicks, which produced a 0.34 m RMSE for the SWH, with a COR of 0.79, which is less than a the RMSE of 0.52 m and the COR of 0.70 for the regions with oil slicks. Moreover, it was found that the SAR-derived SWHs were significantly underestimated by about 0.2 m in the areas with oil slicks. This difference is probably due to the underestimation of the SAR-derived wind speeds at moderate wind speeds (i.e., at wind speeds of greater than 5 ms−1). An additional analysis compared the SAR-derived wave spectra with those from the WW3 model as waves passed through the oil slicks. The interesting finding is that the wave energy at short wave lengths (about 30 m) is reduced by the oil slicks, causing the movement of the dominant wave spectrum to shift to longer wave lengths (about 80 m). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we examined long-term wave distributions using a third-generation numerical wave model called WAVEWATCH-III (WW3) (version 6.07). We also evaluated the influence of sea ice on wave simulation by using eight parametric switches. To select a suitable ice-wave parameterization, we validated the simulations from the WW3 model in March, May, September, and December 2017 against the measurements from the Jason-2 altimeter at latitudes of up to 60°N. Generally, all parameterizations exhibited slight differences, i.e., about 0.6 m root mean square error (RMSE) of significant wave height (SWH) in May and September and about 0.9 m RMSE for the freezing months of March and December. The comparison of the results with the SWH from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts for December 2017 indicated that switch IC4_M1 performed most effectively (0.68m RMSE) at high latitudes (60°–80°N). Given this finding, we analyzed the long-term wave distributions in 1999–2018 on the basis of switch IC4_M1. Although the seasonal variability of the simulated SWH was of two types, i.e., 'U' and 'sin' modes, our results proved that fetch expansion prompted the wave growth. Moreover, the interannual variability of the specific regions in the 'U' mode was found to be correlated with the decade variability of wind in the Arctic Ocean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the relationship between surface currents and wave distributions in typhoons, we took the Typhoon Talim in 2017 as a case, and found that the track of the typhoon winds up to 50 m/s was almost consistent with the Kuroshio track, particularly from September 13 to 16, 2017. The surface current data, derived from the NCEP Climate Forecast System Version 2 (CFSv2) from the National Center of Atmospheric Research (NCAR), revealed that the speed of the wind-induced current exceeded that of the Kuroshio in the region with the maximum wind speed. In this study, was utilized a third-generation numeric wave model, WAVEWATCH-III (the latest version 5.16), developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to simulate the wave fields of Typhoon Talim using the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis wind data in 0.125°×0.125° grid as the forcing field. We found that the root-mean-square error (RMSE) of the significant wave height (SWH) was 0.34 m when validated against measurements from altimeter Jason-2. In addition, we discovered that the SWH had a similar tendency to the change in the surface current speed that was approximately 0.5 m/s at the beginning of Typhoon Talim. However, the relationship became weak as the surface current speed was below 0.2 m/s. Our findings show that the distribution of typhoon waves is resulted from the interaction of surface current and the wind-sea portion of the wave system, since the distribution pattern of wind-sea is consistent with the surface current, and there is a weak relationship between surface current and swell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging of waves across ocean fronts was investigated using C-band Sentinel-1 VV-polarized SAR imagery collected over the Yangtze and the Zhujiang estuaries. The presence of ocean fronts in the study area was confirmed by collocated sea surface temperature (SST) data provided by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and sea surface current information from the National Ocean Partnership Program (NOPP) based on the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM). The experimental results revealed that as the current speed increased, the cut-off wavelength (λc) increased as well. The effect of the increasing azimuth cut-off wavelength, however, was relatively weak in terms of variations of the normalized radar cross-section (NRCS), i.e., it was within 2 dB for λc ≤ 60 m. Hence, it was weaker than the NRCS variation related to SST. Larger NRCS variations (i.e., within 5 dB) occurred for λc values up to 120 m. In addition, the experimental results also demonstrated that the parameterized first-guess spectrum method (PFSM) wave retrieval performance was affected by ocean fronts. In particular, overestimations occurred when ocean fronts were present and λc was < 100 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a suitable tool to obtain reliable wind retrievals with high spatial resolution. The geophysical model function (GMF), which is widely employed for wind speed retrieval from SAR data, describes the relationship between the SAR normalized radar cross-section (NRCS) at the copolarization channel (vertical-vertical and horizontal-horizontal) and a wind vector. SAR-measured NRCS at cross-polarization channels (horizontal-vertical and vertical-horizontal) correlates with wind speed. In this study, a semi-empirical algorithm is presented to retrieve wind speed from the noisy Chinese Gaofen-3 (GF-3) SAR data with noise-equivalent sigma zero correction using an empirical function. GF-3 SAR can acquire data in a quad-polarization strip mode, which includes cross-polarization channels. The semi-empirical algorithm is tuned using acquisitions collocated with winds from the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. In particular, the proposed algorithm includes the dependences of wind speed and incidence angle on cross-polarized NRCS. The accuracy of SAR-derived wind speed is around 2.10 m s-1 root mean square error, which is validated against measurements from the Advanced Scatterometer onboard the Metop-A/B and the buoys from the National Data Buoy Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The results obtained by the proposed algorithm considering the incidence angle in a GMF are relatively more accurate than those achieved by other algorithms. This work provides an alternative method to generate operational wind products for GF-3 SAR without relying on ancillary data for wind direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gaofen-3 (GF-3), a Chinese civil synthetic aperture radar (SAR) at C-band, has operated since August 2016. Remarkably, several typhoons have been captured by GF-3 around the China Seas over its last two-year mission. In this study, six images acquired in Global Observation (GLO) and Wide ScanSAR (WSC) modes at vertical-vertical (VV) polarization channel are discussed. This work focuses on investigating the observation of rainfall using GF-3 SAR. These images were collocated with winds from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), significant wave height simulated from the WAVEWATCH-III (WW3) model, sea surface currents from climate forecast system version 2 (CFSv2) of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and rain rate data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite. Sea surface roughness, was compared with the normalized radar cross section (NRCS) from SAR observations, and indicated a 0.8 correlation (COR). We analyzed the dependences of the difference between model-simulated NRCS and SAR-measured NRCS on the TRMM rain rate and WW3-simulated significant wave height. It was found that the effects of rain on SAR damps the radar signal at incidence angles ranging from 15° to 30°, while it enhances the radar signal at incidence angles ranging from 30° to 45° and incidence angles smaller than 10°. This behavior is consistent with previous studies and an algorithm for rain rate retrieval is anticipated for GF-3 SAR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical-based ocean wave retrieval algorithms are applied by inverting a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) intensity spectrum into a wave spectrum, that has been developed based on a SAR wave mapping mechanism. In our previous studies, it was shown that the wave retrieval algorithm, named the parameterized first-guess spectrum method (PFSM), works for C-band and X-band SAR at low to moderate sea states. In this work, we investigate the performance of the PFSM algorithm when it is applied for dual-polarization c-band sentinel-1 (S-1) SAR acquired in extra wide-swath (EW) and interferometric wide-swath (IW) mode under cyclonic conditions. Strong winds are retrieved from six vertical-horizontal (VH) polarization S-1 SAR images using the c-band cross-polarization coupled-parameters ocean (C-3PO) model and then wave parameters are obtained from the image at the vertical-vertical (VV) polarization channel. significant wave height (SWH) and mean wave period (MWP) are compared with simulations from the WAVEWATCH-III (WW3) model. The validation shows a 0.69 m root mean square error (RMSE) of SWH with a −0.01 m bias and a 0.62 s RMSE of MWP with a −0.17 s bias. Although the PFSM algorithm relies on a good quality SAR spectrum, this study confirms the applicability for wave retrieval from an S-1 SAR image. Moreover, it is found that the retrieved results have less accuracy on the right sector of cyclone eyes where swell directly affects strong wind-sea, while the PFSM algorithm works well on the left and rear sectors of cyclone eyes where the interaction of wind-sea and swell is relatively poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we simulated typhoon waves in the shallow waters around the Zhoushan Islands using the WaveWatch-III (WW3) model version 5.16, the latest version released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Specifically, we used in-situ measurements to evaluate the performance of seven packages of input/dissipation source terms in the WW3 model. We forced the WW3 model by wind fields derived from a combination of the parametric Holland model and high-resolution European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) wind data in a 0.125° grid, herein called H-E winds. We trained the H-E winds by fitting a shape parameter B to buoy-measured observations, which resulted in a smallest root mean square error (RMSE) of 3 m s−1 for B, when treated as a constant 0.4. Then, we applied the seven input/dissipation terms of WW3, labelled ST1, ST2, ST2+STAB2, ST3, ST3+STAB3, ST4, and ST6, to simulate the significant wave height (SWH) up to 5 m during typhoons Fungwong and Chan-hom around the Zhoushan Islands. We then compared the SWHs of the simulated waves with those measured by the in-situ buoys. The results indicate that the simulation using ST2 performs best with an RMSE of 0.79 m for typhoon Fung-wong and an RMSE of 1.12 m for typhoon Chan-hom. Interestingly, we found the simulated SWH results to be relatively higher than those of the observations in the area between Hangzhou Bay and the Zhoushan Islands. This behavior is worthy of further investigation in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gaofen-3 (GF-3) is the first Chinese space-borne satellite to carry the C-band multi-polarization synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Marine applications, i.e., winds and waves retrieved from GF-3 SAR images, have been operational since January 2017. In this study, we have collected more than 1000 quad-polarization (vertical-vertical (VV); horizontal-horizontal (HH); vertical- horizontal (VH); horizontal-vertical (HV)) GF-3 SAR images, which were acquired around the China Seas from September 2016 to September 2017. Wind streaks were visible in these images in co-polarization (VV and HH) channel. Geophysical model functions (GMFs), including the CMOD5N together with polarization ratio (PR) model and C-SARMOD, were used to retrieve winds from the collected co-polarization GF-3 SAR images. Wind directions were directly obtained from GF-3 SAR images. Then, the SAR-derived wind speeds were compared with the measurements at a 0.25° grid from the Advanced Scatterometer on board the Metop-A/B and microwave radiometer WindSAT. Based on the analysis, empirical corrections are proposed to improve the performance of the two GMFs. Results of this study show that the standard deviation of wind speed is 1.63 m s−1 with a 0.19 m s−1 bias and 1.71 m s−1 with a 0.26 m s−1 bias for VV- and HH-polarization GF-3 SAR, respectively. Our work not only systematically evaluates wind retrieval by using the two advanced GMFs and PR models but also proposes empirical corrections to improve the accuracy of wind retrievals from GF-3 SAR images around the China Seas and thus enhance the accuracy of near real-time operational SAR-derived wind products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese Gaofen-3 (GF-3) is the first civilian satellite to carry C-band (5.3 GHz) synthetic aperture radar (SAR). During the period of August 2016 to December 2017, 1 523 GF-3 SAR images acquired in quad-polarization (vertical-vertical (VV), horizontal-horizontal (HH), vertical-horizontal (VH), and horizontal-vertical (HV)) mode were recorded, mostly around China’s seas. In our previous study, the root mean square error (RMSE) of significant wave height (SWH) was found to be around 0.58 m when compared with retrieval results from a few GF-3 SAR images in co-polarization (VV and HH) with moored measurements by using an empirical algorithm CSAR_WAVE. We collected a number of sub-scenes from these 1 523 images in the co-polarization channel, which were collocated with wind and SWH data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis field at a 0.125° grid. Through the collected dataset, an improved empirical wave retrieval algorithm for GF-3 SAR in co-polarization was tuned, herein denoted as CSAR_WAVE2. An additional 92 GF-3 SAR images were implemented in order to validate CSAR_WAVE2 against SWH from altimeter Jason-2, showing an about 0.52 m RMSE of SWH for co-polarization GF-3 SAR. Therefore, we conclude that the proposed empirical algorithm has a good performance for wave retrieval from GF-3 SAR images in co-polarization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose is to study the accuracy of ocean wave parameters retrieved from C-band VV-polarization Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images, including both significant wave height (SWH) and mean wave period (MWP), which are both calculated from a SAR-derived wave spectrum. The wind direction from in situ buoys is used and then the wind speed is retrieved by using a new C-band geophysical model function (GMF) model, denoted as C-SARMOD. Continuously, an algorithm parameterized first-guess spectra method (PFSM) is employed to retrieve the SWH and the MWP by using the SAR-derived wind speed. Forty-five VV-polarization Sentinel-1 SAR images are collected, which cover the in situ buoys around US coastal waters. A total of 52 subscenes are selected from those images. The retrieval results are compared with the measurements from in situ buoys. The comparison performs good for a wind retrieval, showing a 1.6 m/s standard deviation (STD) of the wind speed, while a 0.54 m STD of the SWH and a 2.14 s STD of the MWP are exhibited with an acceptable error. Additional 50 images taken in China's seas were also implemented by using the algorithm PFSM, showing a 0.67 m STD of the SWH and a 2.21 s STD of the MWP compared with European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis grids wave data. The results indicate that the algorithm PFSM works for the wave retrieval from VV-polarization Sentinel-1 SAR image through SAR-derived wind speed by using the new GMF C-SARMOD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To retrieve wind field from SAR images, the development for surface wind field retrieval from SAR images based on the improvement of new inversion model is present. Geophysical Model Functions (GMFs) have been widely applied for wind field retrieval from SAR images. Among them CMOD4 has a good performance under low and moderate wind conditions. Although CMOD5 is developed recently with a more fundamental basis, it has ambiguity of wind speed and a shape gradient of normalized radar cross section under low wind speed condition. This study proposes a method of wind field retrieval from SAR image by combining CMOD5 and CMOD4 Five VV-polarisation RADARSAT2 SAR images are implemented for validation and the retrieval results by a combination method (CMOD5 and CMOD4) together with CMOD4 GMF are compared with QuikSCAT wind data. The root-mean-square error (RMSE) of wind speed is 0.75 m s with correlation coefficient 0.84 using the combination method and the RMSE of wind speed is 1.01 m s with correlation coefficient 0.72 using CMOD4 GMF alone for those cases. The proposed method can be applied to SAR image for avoiding the internal defect in CMOD5 under low wind speed condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]