Mark A. Bourassa

A quantitative evaluation of ENSO indices

Abstract El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a natural, coupled atmospheric–oceanic cycle that occurs in the tropical Pacific Ocean on an approximate timescale of 2–7 yr. ENSO events have been shown in previous studies to be related to regional extremes in weather (e.g., hurricane occurrences, frequency and severity of tornadoes, droughts, and floods). The teleconnection of ENSO events to extreme weather events means that the ability to classify an event as El Nino or La Nina is of interest in scientific and other applications. ENSO is most often classified using indices that indicate the warmth and coolness of equatorial tropical Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures (SSTs). Another commonly used index is based on sea level pressure differences measured across the tropical Pacific Ocean. More recently, other indices have been proposed and have been shown to be effective in describing ENSO events. There is currently no consensus within the scientific community as to which of many indices best captures...

Effects of Rain Rate and Wind Magnitude on SeaWinds Scatterometer Wind Speed Errors

Abstract Rain within the footprint of the SeaWinds scatterometer on the QuikSCAT satellite causes more significant errors than existed with its predecessor, the NASA scatterometer (NSCAT) on Advanced Earth Observing Satellite-I (ADEOS-I). Empirical relations are developed that show how the rain-induced errors in the scatterometer wind magnitude depend on both the rain rate and on the wind magnitude. These relations are developed with collocated National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) buoy measurements (to provide accurate sea surface winds) and simultaneous Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) observations of rain reflectivity. An analysis, based on electromagnetic scattering theory, interprets the dependence of the scatterometer wind errors on volumetric rain rate over a range of wind and rain conditions. These results demonstrate that the satellite scatterometer responds to rain in a manner similar to that of meteorological radars, with a Z–R relationship. These observations and results indicate that the com...

A Flux Parameterization Including the Effects of Capillary Waves and Sea State

Abstract An air–sea interaction model that includes turbulent transport due to capillary waves (surface ripples) is developed. The model differs from others in that the physical premises are applicable to low wind speeds (10-m wind speed, U10 < 5 m s−1) as well as higher wind speeds. Another new feature of the model is an anisotropic roughness length, which allows a crosswind component of the stress to be modeled. The influence of the angle between the mean wind direction and the mean direction of wave propagation is included in the anisotropic roughness length. Most models are not accurate at low wind speeds and tend to underestimate fluxes in low wind speed regions such as the tropical oceans. Improvements over previous models are incorporated in the momentum roughness length parameterization. In addition, the dimensionless constant in the relationship between the capillary wave component of momentum roughness length and friction velocity is reevaluated using both wave tank data and field data. The new ...

Globally Gridded Satellite observations for climate studies

Geostationary satellites have provided routine, high temporal resolution Earth observations since the 1970s. Despite the long period of record, use of these data in climate studies has been limited for numerous reasons, among them that no central archive of geostationary data for all international satellites exists, full temporal and spatial resolution data are voluminous, and diverse calibration and navigation formats encumber the uniform processing needed for multisatellite climate studies. The International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) set the stage for overcoming these issues by archiving a subset of the full-resolution geostationary data at ~10-km resolution at 3-hourly intervals since 1983. Recent efforts at NOAAs National Climatic Data Center to provide convenient access to these data include remapping the data to a standard map projection, recalibrating the data to optimize temporal homogeneity, extending the record of observations back to 1980, and reformatting the data for broad ...

Objectively Derived Daily “Winds” from Satellite Scatterometer Data

Abstract An objective technique is used to create regularly gridded daily “wind” fields from NASA scatterometer (NSCAT) observations for the Pacific Ocean north of 40°S. The objective technique is a combination of direct minimization, and cross validation with multigridding. The fields are created from the minimization of a cost function. The cost function is developed to maximize information from the observational data and minimize smoothing. Three constraints are in the cost function: a misfit to observations, a smoothing term, and a misfit of the curl. The second and third terms are relative to a background field. The influence of the background field is controlled by weights on the smoothing constraints. Weights are objectively derived by the method of cross validation. Cross validation is a process that removes observations from the input to the cost function and determines tuning parameters (weights) by the insensitivity of the removed observations to the output field. This method is computationally...

High-Latitude Ocean and Sea Ice Surface Fluxes: Challenges for Climate Research

Polar regions have great sensitivity to climate forcing; however, understanding of the physical processes coupling the atmosphere and ocean in these regions is relatively poor. Improving our knowledge of high-latitude surface fluxes will require close collaboration among meteorologists, oceanographers, ice physicists, and climatologists, and between observationalists and modelers, as well as new combinations of in situ measurements and satellite remote sensing. This article describes the deficiencies in our current state of knowledge about air–sea surface fluxes in high latitudes, the sensitivity of various high-latitude processes to changes in surface fluxes, and the scientific requirements for surface fluxes at high latitudes. We inventory the reasons, both logistical and physical, why existing flux products do not meet these requirements. Capturing an annual cycle in fluxes requires that instruments function through long periods of cold polar darkness, often far from support services, in situations subject to icing and extreme wave conditions. Furthermore, frequent cloud cover at high latitudes restricts the availability of surface and atmospheric data from visible and infrared (IR) wavelength satellite sensors. Recommendations are made for improving high-latitude fluxes, including 1) acquiring more in situ observations, 2) developing improved satellite-flux-observing capabilities, 3) making observations and flux products more accessible, and 4) encouraging flux intercomparisons.

Wind observations from new satellite and research vessels agree

An instrument designed to observe wind speeds and directions over the ocean surface has realized the promise suggested by the first spaceborne scatterometer on the SeaSAT satellite nearly 20 years ago. In 1996, NSCAT (NASA Scatterometer) rode into orbit on the Japanese satellite ADEOS and gathered 8.5 months of valuable wind data. NSCATs unprecedented ability to determine wind speed and direction over 90% of the icefree global water surface with a 25 km resolution in 2 days should have profound impacts on oceanographic and meteorological applications. Prior to these applications, however, the uncertainty of NSCAT data must be determined from calibration and validation with in-situ observations. Comparison of NSCAT wind speeds and direction to those observed from research vessels shows an extremely good match. The analysis suggests that NSCAT winds appear to be sufficiently accurate for use in forcing ocean models.

EARLY DETECTION OF TROPICAL CYCLONES USING SEAWINDS-DERIVED VORTICITY

A method for early detection of the systems that become tropical cyclones (TCs) in the Atlantic hurricane basin is developed using the SeaWinds scatterometer aboard the QuikSCAT satellite. The method is based on finding positive vorticity signals exceeding a threshold magnitude and horizontal extent within the swath of vector wind observations. The thresholds applied herein are subjectively derived from the TCs of the 1999 Atlantic hurricane season. The thresholds are applied to two sets of data for the 2000 season: research-quality data and near-real-time (< 3-h delay) data (available starting 18 August 2000). For the 2000 research-quality data, 7 of 18 TCs had signals that were detected an average of 27 h before the National Hurricane Center (NHC) classified them as tropical depressions. For the near-real-time data, 3 of 12 TCs had signals that were detected an average of 20 h before NHC classification. The SeaWinds scatterometer is a powerful new tool that, in addition to other conventional products (e...

Establishing More Truth in True Winds

Abstract Techniques are presented for the computation and quality control of true winds from vessels at sea. Correct computation of true winds and quality-control methods are demonstrated for complete data. Additional methods are presented for estimating true winds from incomplete data. Recommendations are made for both existing data and future applications. Quality control of automated weather station (AWS) data at the World Ocean Circulation Experiment Surface Meteorological Data Center reveals that only 20% of studied vessels report all parameters necessary to compute a true wind. Required parameters include the ship’s heading, course over the ground (COG), speed over the ground, wind vane zero reference, and wind speed and direction relative to the vessel. If any parameter is omitted or incorrect averaging is applied, AWS true wind data display systematic errors. Quantitative examples of several problems are shown in comparisons between collocated winds from research vessels and the NASA scatterometer...

Monitoring and Understanding Changes in Extremes: Extratropical Storms, Winds, and Waves

This scientific assessment examines changes in three climate extremes—extratropical storms, winds, and waves—with an emphasis on U.S. coastal regions during the cold season. There is moderate evidence of an increase in both extratropical storm frequency and intensity during the cold season in the Northern Hemisphere since 1950, with suggestive evidence of geographic shifts resulting in slight upward trends in offshore/coastal regions. There is also suggestive evidence of an increase in extreme winds (at least annually) over parts of the ocean since the early to mid-1980s, but the evidence over the U.S. land surface is inconclusive. Finally, there is moderate evidence of an increase in extreme waves in winter along the Pacific coast since the 1950s, but along other U.S. shorelines any tendencies are of modest magnitude compared with historical variability. The data for extratropical cyclones are considered to be of relatively high quality for trend detection, whereas the data for extreme winds and waves ar...