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Satellite Data Application, Validation, and Calibration for Atmospheric Observation II

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A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Satellite Missions for Earth and Planetary Exploration".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 21582

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Dr. Nicholas R. Nalli

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I.M. Systems Group at Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR), National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 5830 University Research Court, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Interests: environmental satellite remote sensing; radiative transfer; satellite data validation and calibration; oceanic and atmospheric applications; global climate change; air–sea interactions; marine meteorology
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Dr. Quanhua Liu

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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Washington D.C., WA, USA
Interests: radiative transfer models; satellite radiance assimilation; sensor calibration and climate studies
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Ms. Lori A. Borg

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Guest Editor

CIMSS, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA
Interests: infrared remote sensing, including instrument calibration, validation, radiative transfer modeling, and retrieval validation
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Well-calibrated, remotely sensed spectral observations acquired from the growing constellation of environmental satellites flown in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and geosynchronous orbit (GEO) provide the vast majority of data for the purpose of observing the global atmosphere and oceans over varying space and timescales. While environmental satellite data have been critical in the improvement of numerical weather forecasts via data assimilation in recent years, a large complement of derived geophysical products and state parameters (e.g., environmental data records, climate data records) retrieved from sensor data records (i.e., spectral radiances) are used for Earth system observation at microscale, mesoscale, synoptic, and global climate scales. Because multiple independent passive and active sensors are sensitive to different portions of the EM spectrum and deployed onboard different satellite platforms, high absolute calibration accuracy is crucial for synergistic observations and data continuity, as well as for specifying reliable uncertainty estimates. Climate change detection, in particular, requires the capability to resolve small global signals over decadal timescales (ΔT ≈ 0.1 K per decade), which fundamentally requires stable sensor data records (SDRs) with high calibration accuracy. Routine monitoring of sensor calibration stability is facilitated via the validation of retrieved geophysical state parameters (i.e., SDRs, environmental (EDRs) and climate data records (CDRs)), which includes assessments of both absolute accuracy and precision with respect to independent reference measurements.

We are pleased to announce this follow-up Part II Special Issue, which will continue on the same path as Part I and focus on the calibration/validation (cal/val) of advanced passive sensors (IR and/or MW) essential for Earth (atmospheric/oceanic) observation onboard operational, experimental, and next-generation environmental satellites, including, but not limited to, JPSS-2, NOAA-20, SNPP, Aqua, Terra, Metop-B,-C, GOES-16,-17, MSG/MTG, Sentinel-5P, OCO-2, Himawari-8, and FY satellites. We invite papers in the areas of sensor (SDR) calibration, algorithm/retrieval (EDR) validation (including intensive campaigns), and sensitivity/impact on derived product (e.g., EDR) applications.

Dr. Nicholas R. Nalli
Dr. Quanhua Liu
Ms. Lori A. Borg
Guest Editors

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Keywords

satellite data calibration
validation
cal/val
measurement
applications

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Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

32 pages, 11214 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment and Correction of View Angle Dependent Radiometric Modulation due to Polarization for the Cross-Track Infrared Sounder (CrIS)

by Joe K. Taylor, Henry E. Revercomb, David C. Tobin, Robert O. Knuteson, Michelle L. Loveless, Rebecca Malloy, Lawrence Suwinski, Flavio Iturbide-Sanchez, Yong Chen, Glen White, Joe Predina and David G. Johnson

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(3), 718; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15030718 - 26 Jan 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1724

Abstract

The Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) is an infrared Fourier-transform spectrometer that measures the Earth’s infrared radiance at high spectral resolution and high accuracy. The potential for polarization errors contributing significantly to the radiometric uncertainty of infrared remote sounders has been well recognized and documented, particularly due to polarization-dependent scene select mirrors operated in conjunction with grating-based instruments. The issue is equally applicable to FTS-based sensors. While the CrIS sensor utilizes an unprotected gold scene select mirror which has extremely low polarization in the infrared and the angle of incidence at the mirror is maintained for all calibration and Earth scene views, the radiometric bias due to polarization effects was determined to be non-negligible for cold scenes. A model for the polarization-induced calibration bias and the associated correction is presented for the CrIS instrument, along with details of the model parameter determination, and the impact of the correction on the calibrated radiances for a range of scene temperatures and types. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Satellite Data Application, Validation, and Calibration for Atmospheric Observation II)

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14 pages, 6074 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Extending the HIRS Data Record with IASI Measurements

by Anand K. Inamdar, Lei Shi, Hai-Tien Lee, Darren L. Jackson and Jessica L. Matthews

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(3), 717; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15030717 - 26 Jan 2023

Viewed by 2381

Abstract

The High-Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS) on the NOAA and the MetOp satellite series have provided global sounding measurements since the late 1970s, spanning over 40 years. These measurements have been useful in climate change detection, numerical weather prediction, and development of long-term climate data records of profiles of atmospheric temperature and humidity, cloud climatology, upper tropospheric water vapor, outgoing longwave radiation, etc. However, the HIRS instrument is being replaced by the new generation of sounders such as the hyperspectral Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) on recently launched satellites. In order to continue and extend the HIRS record, we use IASI measurements to simulate and derive HIRS-like data for the 12 HIRS longwave channels. The MetOp satellite operated by EUMETSAT carries both the HIRS and the hyper-spectral IASI instrument with accurate spectral and radiometric calibration, providing a great opportunity to consistently calibrate the measurements. The IASI radiances are convolved with the HIRS spectral response functions to produce IASI-simulated HIRS (IHIRS) for the longwave channels. In the present work, IHIRS data are collocated and compared with HIRS observed radiances on the same satellite to develop a calibration table for each of the ascending/descending orbits and cloudy and clear categories. The resulting inter-instrument calibrated IHIRS data was found to agree with HIRS brightness temperatures within 0.05 K for all longwave channels. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Satellite Data Application, Validation, and Calibration for Atmospheric Observation II)

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20 pages, 7351 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Simulation of CrIS Radiances Accounting for Realistic Properties of the Instrument Responsivity That Result in Spectral Ringing Features

by Lori Borg, Michelle Loveless, Robert Knuteson, Hank Revercomb, Joe Taylor, Yong Chen, Flavio Iturbide-Sanchez and David Tobin

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(2), 334; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15020334 - 5 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1905

Abstract

This paper provides a procedure for the simulation of radiances from the U. S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) Fourier Transform Spectrometer to include spectral ringing effects caused by the finite-band, non-flat instrument spectral response to incident radiation. A simulation using a line-by-line radiative transfer model is performed to illustrate the magnitude of the effect and to indicate which spectral channels are likely to be impacted. Comparisons with CrIS observations are made to show that for most channels this effect is negligibly small compared to errors in the radiative transfer calculations but for the longwave edge of the CrIS longwave band and a few other regions, the brightness temperature ringing is significant. While the ringing artifact described in this paper may appear to be removed when Hamming apodization is applied, as is done for the assimilation of CrIS data into Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models, it is still present, and its influence reappears if the spectral correlation induced by apodization is properly handled to preserve the information content that derives from high spectral resolution. Inclusion of the instrument responsivity in calculated spectra to properly mimic the observed spectra as defined here eliminates artifacts from this type of ringing. Users of CrIS radiances should consider whether this effect is important for their application. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Satellite Data Application, Validation, and Calibration for Atmospheric Observation II)

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26 pages, 5911 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigating NUCAPS Skill in Profiling Saharan Dust for Near-Real-Time Forecasting

by Arunas Kuciauskas, Anthony Reale, Rebekah Esmaili, Bomin Sun, Nicholas R. Nalli and Vernon R. Morris

Remote Sens. 2022, 14(17), 4261; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14174261 - 29 Aug 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1749

Abstract

Dust outflows off Northwest Africa often propagate westward across the North Tropical Atlantic Basin (NTAB) into the greater Caribbean and US. From a health perspective, weather forecasters in these regions often monitor hazardous air quality associated with this dust. However, forecasters can be constrained by sparse data observations upwind over the Atlantic of the impacted populated areas. Global satellite sounding retrievals can potentially augment and enhance the operational forecasting toolkit for monitoring Saharan dust episodes. The focus of this paper was to examine the skill of the NOAA Unique Combined Atmospheric Processing System (NUCAPS) temperature and water vapor profiles within the dust and non-dust conditions during the March 2019 NOAA Aerosols and Ocean Science Expedition (AEROSE). During this time, the NOAA Ron Brown research ship launched radiosondes to coincide with satellite overpasses that served as independent ground truth data for evaluating NUCAPS. Compared to RAOBs from the Ron Brown, the SNPP and NOAA-20 NUCAPS-derived soundings showed skill in profiling atmospheric conditions supporting Saharan dust monitoring. Outside of dust regions, the NOAA-20 NUCAPS surface temperature bias peaks at 2.0 K; the surface water vapor bias is minimal (~1000 hPa), with a small cold bias that peaks at −50% between 742 and 790 hPa. Corresponding temperature RMS values are less than 2.0 K; water vapor RMS values are generally below 70%. Within the dust regions, NOAA-20 NUCAPS temperature soundings show a cold bias peak of 2.6 K at 918 hPa and 113% of a moist bias peak at the same level. Corresponding temperature RMS values maximize at 3.5 K at 945 hPa; the water vapor RMS shows a peak value of 106% at the same level. Weather forecasters can apply NUCAPS across the NTAB in issuing timely and accurate hazardous air quality warnings and visibility alerts to health officials and the general public. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Satellite Data Application, Validation, and Calibration for Atmospheric Observation II)

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28 pages, 11321 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Retrospective Satellite Analysis of the June 2012 North American Derecho

by Kenneth Pryor and Belay Demoz

Remote Sens. 2022, 14(14), 3479; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14143479 - 20 Jul 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2258

Abstract

The North American Derecho of 29–30 June 2012 exhibits many classic progressive and serial derecho features. It remains one of the highest-impact derecho-producing convective systems (DCS) over CONUS since 2000. This research effort enhances the understanding of the science of operational forecasting of severe windstorms through examples of employing new satellite and ground-based microwave and vertical wind profile data. During the track of the derecho from the upper Midwestern U.S. through the Mid-Atlantic region on 29 June 2012, clear signatures associated with a severe MCS were apparent in polar-orbiting satellite imagery, especially from the EPS METOP-A Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS), Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS), and NASA TERRA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). In addition, morning (descending node) and the evening (ascending node) METOP-A Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) soundings are compared to soundings from surface-based Radiometrics Corporation MP-3000 series microwave radiometer profilers (MWRPs) along the track of the derecho system. The co-located IASI and MWRP soundings revealed a pre-convective environment that indicated a favorable volatile tropospheric profile for severe downburst wind generation. An important outcome of this study will be to formulate a functional relationship between satellite-derived parameters and signatures, and severe convective wind occurrence. Furthermore, a comprehensive approach to observational data analysis involves both surface- and satellite-based instrumentation. Because this approach utilizes operational products available to weather service forecasters, it can feasibly be used for monitoring and forecasting local-scale downburst occurrence within derecho systems, as well as larger-scale convective wind intensity associated with the entire DCS. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Satellite Data Application, Validation, and Calibration for Atmospheric Observation II)

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16 pages, 2488 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluating Satellite Sounders for Monitoring the Tropical Cyclone Environment in Operational Forecasting

by Rebekah Esmaili, Christopher Barnet, Jason Dunion, Michael Folmer and Jonathan Zawislak

Remote Sens. 2022, 14(13), 3189; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14133189 - 2 Jul 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2233

Abstract

Tropical cyclones can form over open ocean where in situ observations are limited, so forecasters rely on satellite observations to monitor their development and track. We explore the utility of an operational satellite sounding product for tropical forecasting by characterizing the products retrieval skill during research flights. Scientists from both the NOAA-Unique Combined Atmospheric Processing System (NUCAPS) research team and tropical cyclone communities collaborated to target relevant tropical cyclones during the campaign. This effort produced 130 dropsondes that are well-timed with satellite sounder overpasses over three different tropical cyclones and one Saharan Air Layer outbreak. For the combined infrared and microwave retrieval, the NUCAPS temperature has a root mean square error (RMSE) of 1.2 K near the surface (1000–600 mb) and 0.8 K in the mid-troposphere (600–300 mb), which is in line with global product requirements. The water vapor mixing ratio RMSE was 26% near the surface and 46% in the mid-troposphere. NUCAPS microwave-only retrievals can also be useful for cloudy scenes, with surface RMSE values of 4 K (temperature) and 23% (water vapor). Using information content analysis, we estimated that the vertical resolution near the surface was 1.7 km for the temperature retrievals and 2.2 km for the water vapor retrievals in this study. We discuss the feasibility of implementing NUCAPS in an operational forecasting setting, which requires rapid data delivery to forecaster software tools. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Satellite Data Application, Validation, and Calibration for Atmospheric Observation II)

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23 pages, 7411 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of the Consistency and Stability of CrIS Infrared Observations Using COSMIC-2 Radio Occultation Data over Ocean

by Yong Chen, Changyong Cao, Xi Shao and Shu-Peng Ho

Remote Sens. 2022, 14(11), 2721; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14112721 - 6 Jun 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2309

Abstract

The accuracy of brightness temperature (BT) from the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite and NOAA-20 is estimated using the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate 2 (COSMIC-2) radio occultation (RO) wet retrievals (temperature and water vapor profiles) as input to the Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM). The matchup criteria between RO and CrIS observations are time less than 30 min, a distance less than 50 km, and over oceans to reduce the collocation and simulation uncertainty. Based on the information provided in the CrIS and RO observations, only upper temperature sounding channels with weighting function peak height (WFPH) above 200 hPa (~12 km) from the CrIS longwave infrared (LWIR) and shortwave infrared (SWIR) bands and water vapor channels from the CrIS mid-wave infrared (MWIR) band with WFPH above 500 hPa (~6.3 km) are selected for comparison to minimize the impacts from the surface emission, cloud absorption/scattering, and atmospheric gaseous absorption. The absolute differences between CrIS observations and their CRTM simulations using RO data as input are less than 1.0 K for the majority of those selected channels. The double differences between CrIS observations on NOAA-20 and S-NPP using CRTM simulations as transfer references are very stable. They range from −0.05 K to 0.15 K for LWIR channels and −0.20 K to 0.10 K for SWIR channels during the two years from 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2021. For MWIR channels, the double differences range from −0.15 K to 0.25 K but have significant variations in both daily mean and monthly mean time series. The results provide ways to understand the qualities of RO retrieval and CrIS measurements: RO data can be used to assess the consistency and stability of CrIS observations quantitatively, and CrIS measurements have the quality to assess the quality and stability of RO retrievals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Satellite Data Application, Validation, and Calibration for Atmospheric Observation II)

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20 pages, 30290 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Influence of Aerosols on Satellite Infrared Radiance Simulations and Jacobians: Numerical Experiments of CRTM and GSI

by Shih-Wei Wei, Cheng-Hsuan (Sarah) Lu, Benjamin T. Johnson, Cheng Dang, Patrick Stegmann, Dustin Grogan, Guoqing Ge and Ming Hu

Remote Sens. 2022, 14(3), 683; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14030683 - 31 Jan 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2569

Abstract

For a variational data assimilation (DA) system that assimilates radiance observations, the simulated brightness temperature (BT) at the top of the atmosphere and the corresponding Jacobians carried out by the radiance observation operator are needed information. Previous studies reported that the incorporation of aerosol information into the radiance observation operator leads to cooler simulated infrared (IR) BTs and warmer temperature analyses at low levels of the atmosphere. However, the role of the aerosol-affected Jacobians in the DA system, which not only affect the determination of analysis increments but also influence the quality control and the bias correction algorithm, is yet to be investigated. This study examines the aerosol impacts on the sensitivity of IR radiance simulations, Jacobians, and the analysis increments by conducting two experiments: (i) sensitivity tests to assess how the different aspects of the aerosol profiles (i.e., mass loading, peak aerosol level, aerosol thickness layer, and bin partition) affect the simulated BT and the Jacobians from the Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM), which is the radiance observation operator in the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) analysis system; (ii) single IR observation experiments using GSI to investigate how the aerosol-affected atmospheric Jacobians influence the analysis increment. The results show that dust aerosols produce the strongest cooling to simulated BTs under similar aerosol optical depths; simulated BTs and Jacobians are most sensitive to the loading and peak altitude of the aerosol layer; simulated BTs become more sensitive to the temperature of the aerosol layer; aerosol-induced differences in atmospheric Jacobians lead to considerable changes to temperature and moisture increments. These results provide a better understanding of the aerosol impacts on each component involved in radiance DA, which can provide guidance for assimilating aerosol-affected IR observations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Satellite Data Application, Validation, and Calibration for Atmospheric Observation II)

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14 pages, 8644 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Validation of Near-Real-Time NOAA-20 CrIS Outgoing Longwave Radiation with Multi-Satellite Datasets on Broad Timescales

by Tianyuan Wang, Lihang Zhou, Changyi Tan, Murty Divakarla, Ken Pryor, Juying Warner, Zigang Wei, Mitch Goldberg and Nicholas R. Nalli

Remote Sens. 2021, 13(19), 3912; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13193912 - 30 Sep 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2365

Abstract

The Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) package was first developed as a stand-alone application, and then integrated into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Unique Combined Atmospheric Processing System (NUCAPS) hyperspectral sounding retrieval system. An objective of this package is to provide near-real-time OLR products derived from the Cross Track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) onboard the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) satellites. It was initially developed and validated with CrIS onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite, and has been expanded to JPSS-1 (renamed NOAA-20 after launch) datasets that are currently available to the public. In this paper, we provide the results of detailed validation tests with NOAA-20 CrIS for large and wide representative conditions at a global scale. In our validation tests, the observations from Clouds and Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) on Aqua were treated as the absolute reference or “truth”, and those from SNPP CrIS OLR were used as the transfer standard. The tests were performed on a

1 ° \times 1 °

global spatial grid over daily, monthly, and yearly timescales. We find that the CrIS OLR products from NOAA-20 agree exceptionally well with those from Aqua CERES and SNPP CrIS OLR products in all conditions: the daily bias is within

\pm 0.6

Wm⁻², and the standard deviation (STD) ranges from 4.88 to 9.1 Wm⁻². The bias and the STD of OLR monthly mean are better, within 0.3 and 2.0 Wm⁻², respectively. These findings demonstrate the consistency between NOAA-20 and SNPP CrIS OLR up to annual scales, and the robustness of NUCAPS CrIS OLR products. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Satellite Data Application, Validation, and Calibration for Atmospheric Observation II)

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