Éditeur(s) : American Geophysical Union
Résumé : [1] Extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones are difficult to observe with conventional means. Satellite-based observations provide essential measurements of key parameters governing tropical cyclones. They are critical for short-term forecasting. Radiometers onboard the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program satellite series, WindSat and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellites, scatterometers onboard the ERS, ADEOS, and QuikScat satellites offer unprecedented synoptic observations of surface wind and atmospheric liquid water content, revealing the storm structures with good accuracy. However, satellite estimates do not provide direct measurements of geophysical parameters and can suffer from limitations linked to the sensors characteristics, such as the signal wavelength and polarization or the measurement incidence angle. For example, measurements at Ku band are strongly affected by rain. Still, each observing system can offer specific information that can be combined with the others. In particular, we highlight the capabilities of dual-frequency altimeter to provide very high resolution measurements of rain rate, surface wind speed, and wave characteristics. A method is proposed to obtain continuous along-track 5 km resolution measurements of these parameters in the tropical cyclone Isabel. The results shows that dual-frequency altimeters can provide useful information to complement and validate the operational fields provided by the atmospheric numerical models and by NOAA observing systems.
Journal of Geophysical Union - Research C - Oceans (0148-0227) (American Geophysical Union), 2006 , Vol. 111 , N. C1 , P. NIL_38-NIL_50

Droits : 2006 American Geophysical Union
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2006/publication-1033.pdf
DOI:10.1029/2005JC003068
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/1033/

Éditeur(s) : American Geophysical Union
Résumé : Microwave Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) measurements can be performed by isolating the emissivity response to salinity changes from numerous geophysical effects, including surface temperature and wind waves. At L-band frequencies (1 to 2 GHz), the sensitivity to SSS is sufficient but it falls off quickly as frequency is increased. Nevertheless, methods using higher microwave frequencies with much lower SSS sensitivity than at L band, can already be tested. In particular, combining 6 and 10 GHz data in vertical polarization efficiently minimizes sea surface roughness and thermal impacts. Using AMSR-E data, the retrieved bi-monthly maps of SSS at 0.5 degrees resolution over the region of the Amazon plume show relative accuracy in-line with the future L-band dedicated mission objectives. Citation: Reul, N., S. Saux-Picart, B. Chapron, D. Vandemark, J. Tournadre, and J. Salisbury (2009), Demonstration of ocean surface salinity microwave measurements from space using AMSR-E data over the Amazon plume, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L13607, doi:10.1029/2009GL038860.
Geophysical Research Letters ( GRL ) (0094-8276) (American Geophysical Union), 2009-07 , Vol. 36 , P. 1-5

Droits : 2009. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2009/publication-6620.pdf
DOI:10.1029/2009GL038860
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/6620/