Sampling error of daily mean surface wind speed and air specific humidity due to Sun-synchronous satellite sampling and its reduction by multi-satellite sampling.

To quantify the sampling error of wind speed (W) and the surface air specific humidity (Qa) resulting from Sun-synchronous polar-orbit satellite sampling and the effect of single- and multi-satellite sampling, we compared satellite-simulated data with true daily mean data using buoy data. True daily mean data were obtained by averaging buoy data at all available times over 24 h, while satellite-simulated data were the averages of buoy data sampled at satellite passing times (once or twice each day). The difference between true and satellite-simulated data was defined as the sampling error. The sampling error of the daily mean data of W and Qa depends considerably on the satellite observation time and location. Although the sampling error is fairly reduced if multi-satellite sampling is employed, a noticeable sampling error remains in some cases if a wrong sampling combination is employed. Therefore, multi-satellite data should be carefully used to obtain more accurate global data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]