Reference-Quality Emission and Backscatter Modeling for the Ocean

• Published in: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 2020-10, Vol.101 (10), p.E1593-E1601
• Main Authors: English, Stephen, Prigent, Catherine, Johnson, Ben, Yueh, Simon, Dinnat, Emmanuel, Boutin, Jacqueline, Newman, Stuart, Anguelova, Magdalena, Meissner, Thomas, Kazumori, Masahiro, Weng, Fuzhong, Supply, Alexandre, Kilic, Lise, Bettenhausen, Michael, Stoffelen, Ad, Accadia, Christophe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Approximation; Backscatter; Backscattering; Breaking waves; Data assimilation; Data collection; Dielectric constant; Dielectric properties; Emission; Emissions; Emissivity; Foams; Frequency ranges; Instrumentation; Meeting Summary; Modelling; Ocean currents; Ocean models; Ocean surface; Ocean wave heights; Ocean, Atmosphere; Oceans; Radiative transfer; Remote sensing; Salinity; Scale models; Science; Sciences of the Universe; Sea surface; Sea surface temperature; Seawater; Space science; Surface salinity; Teams; Wave height; Weather forecasting; Wind; Wind speed
• ISSN: 0003-0007; 1520-0477
• DOI: 10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0085.1

ISSI Science Team Meeting Report on Development of a Reference-Quality Model For Ocean Surface Emissivity and Backscatter from the Microwave to the Infrared What: Sixteen members of an International Space Science Institute team—from America, Asia, and Europe and with backgrounds in radiative transfer modeling, data assimilation, field campaigns, space agencies, and instrumentation—met to provide a reference-quality model for ocean surface emission and backscatter. Two scale models have achieved considerable success, but there remain areas of uncertainty, including cases where the wind and waves are aligned differently (the so-called horseshoe pattern), cases where there is high wind speed with low wave height, breaking waves and allowing for ocean currents. Since the earliest studies, it has been clear that foam has a significant role (Nordberg et al. 1969; Webster et al. 1976). Practical models Operational weather prediction systems need to assimilate millions of observations in just a few minutes, making many models too slow to be practical. [...]a range of simplified or parametric models have been developed. The RSS ocean emissivity model uses a double Debye dielectric constant of seawater from Meissner and Wentz (2004, 2012) and is valid for a sea surface salinity (SSS) range between 0 and 40 psu and SST range between −2° and 32°C. The wind induced component covers the frequency range of 6–90 GHz (Meissner and Wentz 2012) with a special version for L-band (Meissner et al. 2014, 2018).