JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 103, NO.

C4, PAGES 7847-7856, APRIL 15, 1998

Mesoscale wind measurements using recalibrated ERS

SAR images
S. Lehner
DeutscheForschungsanstalt
fiir Luft- und Raumfahrt,Deutsches
Fernerkundungsdatenzentrum
Weftling, Germany

J. Horstmann, W. Koch, and W. Rosenthal

GKSS Research Centre, Geesthacht, Germany

Abstract. The precision

images(PRI) of the syntheticapertureradars(SAR)
on board the EuropeanRemoteSensingSatellitesERS-1 and ERS-2 are usedto
derive mesoscalewind fields over the ocean. For calculation of the wind speed
the C- bandmodel(CMOD4) is used,whichwasoriginallydeveloped by Stoffelen
andAnderson [1993]for •he EuropeanSpaceAgency(ESA) to derivewindfields
frommeasurementsof the windscatterometer
(SCAT). In the caseof the ERS-1/2
SAR the CMOD4 is usedto computethe wind speedfrom the normalizedradar
backscatter
crosssection(NRCS) and the incidenceangleof the radarbeam,both
computedfrom the SAR.PRI data. The third input variableis the wind direction,
which is estimated from the wind streaksin the imagesor from ground truth
measurements.The SAR data are affectedby a powerloss,causedby saturationof
the analogto digitalconverter(ADC) of the SAR. Thereforethe imageshaveto be
recalibrated. Errors in the derivedwind speedare mainly due to ADC saturation
and uncertaintiesof the input wind direction.Theseerrorsare estimatedfor various
wind conditions.Mesoscalewind fieldscomputedfrom ERS-1/2 SAR.PRI images
taken between the Shetland Islands and the west coast of Norway are compared
to groundtruth measurements and modeledwind fieldsfrom the Germanweather
service(DWD). Wind fieldsof the nonhydrostatic mesoscale modelGeesthacht
simulationmodelof •he atmosphere(GESIMA) are comparedto the derivedwind
field of the ERS-1 SAR.PRI imageat the islandRiigenin the Baltic Sea.

1. Introduction Norway with superimposedwind speedsderived with

the C- band model (CMOD4) out of the $AR precision
The grid cell of state of the art meteorological
mod- image (PRI) data.
els is of the order of 10 km. Finer spatial resolution The object of the investigation is to derive mesoscale
is needed to model a variety of coastal processes,e.g., wind fields over the ocean surface from the normalized
currents, waves, wind, and related transport processes. radar backscattercrosssection (NRCS) of ERS SAR
Validation with conventional ground truth measure- data and compare these results to model and ground
ments usually requiresenormousefforts in large cam- truth data. Wind speedsfrom ERS SAR imagesof the
paigns. ocean surface have been derived, e.g., by Alpers and
The spatial resolution of 25 m together with the Briimmer [1994], Chaptonet al. [1994],Rosenthalet
coverageof 100 x 100 km makes the syntheticaper- al. [1995],Johannessen et al. [1996],and Scoonet al.
ture radar (SAR) on board of the European Remote [1996].In thesearticleseitherrecalibrationis not con-
SensingSatellite(ERS-1/2) especiallyvaluablefor mea- sideredor extensivecomparisonsto modelsand ground
suringspatiallyinhomogeneous wind and wavefields. truth are not given.
Therefore radiometricallycalibrated SAR imagesoffer The backscatter from the rough ocean surface for
a uniqueopportunityto make synopticmesoscale wind moderate incidenceangles(200-70ø) is dominatedby
measurementsthat were never possiblebefore. Figure resonant Braggscattering[ Valenzuela,
1978].Addition-
I showsan ERS-1 SAR image at the south coast of ally, Raleigh scatteringand specularreflectionmay con-
tribute to the backscatter.FollowingWright[1966],the
backscatter signal is causedby the water wave compo-
Copyright1998by the AmericanGeophysical
Union nent which is in resonance with the incidence radiation.

Paper number 97JC02726. The prime resonant water wave number kw is related
0148-0227/98/ 97JC-02726$09.00 to the electromagnetic wave number kel of the radar
7847
 21562202c, 1998, C4, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/97JC02726 by Nat Prov Indonesia, Wiley Online Library on [24/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
7848 LEHNER ET AL.- MESOSCALE WIND MEASUREMENTS USING ERS SAR IMAGES

Incidenceangle[o] on the ocean surface, it became evident that ERS-1

SAR data are not properly calibrated; the measured
25.68 24.73 23.78 22.83 21.87 20.92 19.97
I ' I ' I ' I ' I ' I ' I
drop-offin backscatterbetweennear rangeto far range
o •,•o of the SAR image can be up to 5 dB lower than the
expectedvalue of about 6 dB for an oceansurface.
This phenomenoncan be assignedto the receivergain
setting causinga too high input power into the analog
20 20 to digital converter(ADC). It getssaturatedwhenlarge
homogenous areasof relativelyhigh backscatterare im-
aged [Meadowsand Wright, 1994]. Becauseof ADC
saturation the SAR data are affected by a power loss.
4O 4O This is especiallythe casefor oceansurfacesin medium
to strongwind conditionsand on inland ice, but inho-
mogeneous areasof large backscatter,like cities, show
the same effect. In the case of the ocean surface the
60 60 near-rangepart of the image, where the backscatteris
higher,is moststronglyaffected.The EuropeanSpace
Agency(ESA) tried to avoidthis problemfor the second
satellite ERS-2 by a reduction of the receivergain set-
80 80 ting of the SAR system(about 4 dB lower). Therefore
the problemof ADC saturationis lessseverefor ERS-2
SAR images,but it is still present.In consequence,ERS
SAR imagesusedfor determinationof wind fieldsover
80 60 40 20 0 the ocean have to be recalibrated.
Distance in range [km]
Figure 1. ERS-1 syntheticapertureradar (SAR) im- 2. Estimation of Wind Direction
age from September26, 1995, at 1036 UTC. The iso-
tachsare given in m s-• and were derivedusingthe Figure 2 depictsan ERS-1 SAR imageacquiredon the
C band model (CMOD4) with a constantwind direc- August 12, 1991, at 2107 UTC, showingthe island of
tion of 270 ø . Rfigen, situated at the German coastin the Baltic Sea.
Typical for this area is brackish water and a structured
coastlinewith severallagoonscalled "Bodden." For this
accordingto area, mesoscalemodels of wind speed, sea state, cur-
k•o- 2ketsinc•, (1) rents, and transport-related processeswere developed
where c• is the incidenceangle of the radar beam. In that are comparedto respectiveSAR images. An ap-
caseof the ERS SAR, operating at C- band with inci- plicationcanbe foundin workby Wolfand Gayer[1995]
denceanglesbetween20ø and 26ø, the rangeof scatter- and in work by Horstmannand Wolf [1997].
ing wavelengthsextendsfrom 8.2 to 6.5 cm. Therefore On the sea surfacethe typical features of a mesoscale
the NRCS can be usedto evaluate parameterswhich in- wind field, like shadowingbehind the cliffs at the east-
fluencethe small-scaleroughness,like the wind speed. ern part of the island, wind streaks, and varying wind
For the determination of the wind speedand direction speed in the Bodden can be observed. Where wind
over the ocean surface from the three antennaes of the streaks are visible, they can be used to estimate the
ERS scatterometer(SCAT), an empiricC- band model wind direction up to 180ø ambiguity, finding the dom-
CMOD4 [$toffelenandAnderson,1993]wasdeveloped, inant directionby fast Fourier transform (FFT) meth-
a revision of which is describedby $toffelen and An- ods.
derson[1997].The SCAT andSAR on boardERS-1/2 The solid black lines in Figure 2 give the orienta-
operate at the samefrequency. Thus the CMOD4 can tion perpendicular to the main spectral power of wind
be applied to the SAR. In contrastto the SCAT, the streaks as derived by FFT. For the thin lines an area of
SAR collectsdata only from one antenna. Therefore 5 x 5 km was used, and for the thick lines an area of
the wind direction is needed as further input to derive 10 x 10 km was used. For the estimation a regression
the wind speedby the CMOD4. Usually, SAR images weightedwith the energy densitiesfor wavelengthsbe-
show distinct features like wind streaks or shadowing tween 500 and 1500 m was computed. As an example,
behind coastsfrom which the large-scalewind direction Figure 3 showsthe image power spectrum of a 10- x
can be derived. 10-km subsettaken north of Rfigen. The main spectral
It is obviousthat for this procedure, accurately cal- energyis located perpendicularto the orientation of the
ibrated SAR imagesare needed. Unfortunately, while streaks, which give the wind direction with a 180ø am-
studyingthe characteristicrange dependenceof back- biguity. Becauseof the shadowingthe 180ø ambiguity
scatter[Meadows and Wright,1994;$coonet al. 1996] couldbe removed,resulting in a wind direction of 296ø.
 21562202c, 1998, C4, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/97JC02726 by Nat Prov Indonesia, Wiley Online Library on [24/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
LEHNER ET AL.- MESOSCALE WIND MEASUREMENTS USING ERS SAR IMAGES 7849

lOO

9o

8o

.. ..

7o

...:;s.!!
:::..,?.-'.-.-.?;:
;!
ß.;;•'•::
..... - :...:...
....... ..:..:.....'.'::•:;:....;...

6o ..:.:-.-.":'
•'-!..-.:•L..'.":;•._-:•!:•!;.:•

.. - .. . -- ..,., .:•.,.:.;.
,....,......ß....,...::...
ß
*"' ';.......... •i'.%i;;;•<.!::,.'-
,,,:.,.. "'
............?..•'•...
g•;,• ,'---:'
.......
..,...:
•.- ......
-
.... ..-:;...::;
:•-'..,•.
50' ....
..
'-2;'•.
v;'.:.;..-.: .,-,.• -....
ß..., . '.::--':...;:*,
':

40

30

20

10

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 lOO

Distance in range [km]

Figure 2. ERS-1SARimageof the islandof Rfigenat the Germancoastof the BalticSea,
taken on August 12, 1991, at 2107 UTC. The solid black lines showthe orientation of streaks
in the imageascomputed
by fastFouriertransform.The thicklineswerecomputed
for a 10- x
10-km area and the thin lines for a 5- x 5-km subarea.

This agreeswell with the measuredgroundtruth wind This method fails when no wind streaks or wind shad-
directionof 282ø at Arkonaat the north tip of Rfigen. owsare detectable,but in 70% of the SAR imagescon-
In the left part of Figure 2, no wind streakscould be sidered, wind streaks could be detected and were used
detected, and the spectra yielded no reasonabledirec- as input for the wind direction into the CMOD4. The
tionalinformation.Forthe calculationof windspeedfor error in wind speed due to error in wind direction is
Figure 2 the wind direction was taken to be a constant discussed in section 6.
290ø over the whole image.
Usingthis procedure,wind directionand wind speed
are derivedat differentscalesattributing all the vari- 3. Effect of Power Loss on Wind
ability to wind speed, while the direction is held con-
Measurements
stant. In the upper right cornerof Figure 2 it can be
seenthat the error due to this procedurebetweenthe 5- A first-calibrationprocedureconvertingintensities,
and 10-km scale is rather small at -•10 ø. In the Bodden ! (amplitudessquared),of the SAR.PRI data to the
area a higher variability is to be expected. NRCS is givenby Laur [1992]
 21562202c, 1998, C4, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/97JC02726 by Nat Prov Indonesia, Wiley Online Library on [24/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
7850 LEHNER ET AL.- MESOSCALE WIND MEASUREMENTS USING ERS SAR IMAGES

2O
....• .............
?..--• 26ø' -
x....i:-:----'-•..;......;•i?---
--'.--..--•.....-•-
.:::::i!::!-.-•!i:•=•i:E::-•.i.:•:.:.:.i..•:.....-...-:...•.-.:i
=--.•!=::•:,-.t---.-',•-'•.:-.
'•••-:•...-.'.ii-:.=...

' 0 '-'"!½:•:"
::•:;1'"•-
'½•::-----'.
"' i•ii--'!•:
-c-
•:--'."-D•i•'--':•i..•;11
• :•: •-• ::-::-:.•-•.•--':t•.-"--
•'*-'::-•-':

• o
...................
**..........
'":
................
*•'' / ....
!::!,:•!':::i;..
::,•4.*.,ii•:.:•-i:::*-•..--".!:,ii
..'{!•:•.•
-

:::•,•ii.,!::':-'
':_:".).i_--?i½•..
:--!-;i•':
"-"'•
•':'.• CMOD4
....... ERS-1 uncorrected
' ...:.
.:._
_ - - - ERS-2 uncorrected

2; 12
Incidenceangle[deg]

-2o , '• .:i:.i:i:•:i.•:.!•

......
•i•i.-.:;.'l•::i5
...... Figure 5. Estimate of the effectof power losson wind
measurements derived with the CMOD4 from ERS-1
,,,,1•,,,,,•,•1,,, :1.80ø,/,
, ,,, • • I,,, • • ,, , ,, I,,,, •, , ,,I,,,•,
and ERS-2 SAR imagesin the caseof upwind for wind
-20 -1.0 0 1.0 20 speedsfrom 2 to 26 m s-1 in stepsof 4 m s-1.

Figure 3. Image power spectrumof an area in the

open water north of Riigen. Wave numberstaken for rection for the antenna pattern has to be applied. A
estimationof wind directioncorrespond to wavelengths detailed list is availableat the ESA help desk. An ini-
from 500 to 1500m. The main energyis alongan ori- tial contactis availableat http://earthnet.esrin.esa.it/.
entation of 26ø versusnorth; the wind streaks are ori- In additionto the effectsmentionedin (2), the new
entated perpendicular. calibration proceduretakes the power loss due to the
ADC saturationand the changesin replicapowerinto
account. The replica power is part of the internal SAR
I sin c•
-- , (2) calibration. Details are givenin the paper by Laur et
NRCS
- K sin
C•re
f al. [1996].The resultingcompletecalibrationformula
is of the form
whereK is a calibrationconstantat the referenceangle
I sin (• IRP
t•ref (23ø)oftheSAR.PRIimages,
whichunfortunately
dependson the individual processingand archivingfa- NRCS-
• sin
C•re
f RRP
power
loss, (3)
cility processorand dependson the processingdate. whereIRP denotes the replicapowerof the imageand
A list of K values is available at ESA; for the Ger-
RRP denotes the replicapowerof the reference image.
man processingand archivingfacility (D-PAF), K is Whileall the othercorrections arein the rangeof i dB
666, ii0. for ERS-1 and 944,064. for ERS-2. The fac- and may be importantfor an accuratecalibration,the
torsint• x sin-1 t•ref takes
thevariation
ofK withthe powerlosscorrectioncan be higherthan 6 dB and is
incidenceangle c• between 19ø and 26ø into account. thus crucial.
Dependingon the PAF and the processingdate, a cor- Figure 4 showsthe power losscorrectionfor ERS-i
and ERS-2SAR images.The NRCSis averaged over
the areawhichcontributes to the signalat the input to
• ERS-1
the ADC. It can be seenthat for ERS-i a powerloss
correctionlargerthan 1 dB needsto be appliedonlyfor
o ERS-2
scenes with a NRCS higherthan -6 dB. This is usually
• 4 only the casefor roughoceansurfaces, inlandice, and
areascontaininga lot of targetswith high backscatter
valuessuchastowns.Because of the differentgainset-
tingsof the ADC on the ERS-2SAR, powerlosscorrec-
tionsabove1 dB are onlynecessary for a NRCS larger
than-1 dB. For ERS-2,thereis a powergainfor NRCS
valuesbelow-20 dB, whichis due to quantizationef-
fects for low return values. As NRCS values below-17
-30 -25 o - -lO -5 o dB wouldcorrespond to windspeeds below2 m s-1, this
NRCS [dBl
effectis of no relevanceto wind speedmeasurements.
Figure 4. Power losscorrectionfor ERS-1 and ERS-2 In Figure 5 we give a theoreticalestimate of the ef-
SAR images. fect of power loss on wind measurementsfrom ERS-1
 21562202c, 1998, C4, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/97JC02726 by Nat Prov Indonesia, Wiley Online Library on [24/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
LEHNER ET AL.' MESOSCALE WIND MEASUREMENTS USING ERS SAR IMAGES 7851

270

9O
5 10 15 20 25 5 10 15 20 25
Wind speed [m/s] Wind speed [•s]

Figure 6. Estimated relative reduction in percentage
of wind speed derived by CMOD4 due to the power
lossof ERS-1 SAR for an incidenceangle of 23ø. The
wind direction is given clockwisefrom flight direction;
for example,90ø is correspondingto upwind.
Figure 7. Estimated relative reduction in percentage
of wind speed derived by CMOD4 due •o the power
lossof ERS-2 SAR for an incidenceangle of 23ø. The
wind direction is given clockwisefrom flight direction;
for example, 90ø is corresponding•o upwind.

and ERS-2 SAR images. The solid lines show the ex- that at least for ERS-1 images,recalibrationis always
pected range dependenceof NRCS valuesfor ERS-1/2 necessary.
calculated by CMOD4 at wind speedsbetween 2 and
26 m s-i when the wind is blowingtoward the an- e Comparisons to Ground Truth
tenna. Using the table of the power losscorrectional-
gorithm, the dotted linesshowthe expectedNRCS for CMOD4-derived wind speeds from 20 recalibrated
ERS-1 SAR, and the dashed ones show the expected ERS-1/2 SAR imagesat differentgeographical locations
NRCS for ERS-2 SAR at the respective wind speeds. are compared to the analyzed wind fields of the Ger-
The NRCS for upwind and downwind is higher than man weather service(DWD) model, with a grid size
for cross wind. In the former case the power loss has of 0.5 ø x 0.5 ø, 10-min-mean wind speed measurements
the largest influence. For ERS-1 SAR images in near of the German researchvessel(R/V) Gaussoperated
range (c• about 19.6ø), alreadyfor wind speedsabove by the Bundesamt fiir Seeschiffahrtund Hydrographie
6 m s-1, the NRCS exceeds the criticalvalueof-2 dB, (BSH) and from measurementsof the Royal Nether-
where powerlossabove1 dB occurs.In far range, signif- lands MeteorologicalInstitute (KNMI) [Koek, 1995a,
icantpowerlossoccursfor windspeeds above10 m s-1 . b, c] at the oil platform Cormorantand the lighthouse
For ERS-2 the situation is lesssevere;power loss occurs Lista Fur. Table I lists the SAR frames considered.
in nearrangeabovewindspeeds of about10m s-1 and Figure 8 showsan ERS-1 SAR image taken on De-
at far rangeof about18 m s-1. cember 1, 1995, at 1101 UTC near the Gullfaks oil field.
In Figures6 and 7 the relative reductionin percentage The oil platforms can be seenas bright spots, and one
of wind speedderived by the CMOD4 due to the power of them is pointed at by the white arrow. The position
lossis plotted as a function of wind direction and wind of the R/V Gaussis denotedby a star.
speedfor the ERS-1 and the less affected ERS-2 SAR In this case, wind direction can be taken from the
imagesfor an incidenceangleof 23ø. The conclusionis wind streakswhich give the wind direction with a 180ø

Table 1. List of the ERS-1/2 SAR ImagesConsideredfor Comparison

Time, Time,
Orbit Frame Date UTC Orbit Frame Date UTC
21539 2439 Aug. 28, 1995 1047 1866 2439 Aug. 29, 1995 1047
21682 2457 Sep. 07, 1995 1033 2009 2457 Sep. 08, 1995 1033
21789 1161 Sep. 14, 1995 2140 2095 2439 $ep. 14, 1995 1045
21811 2421 Sep. 16, 1995 1050 2138 2421 Sep. 17, 1995 1050
21911 2439 Sep. 23, 1995 1030 2216 1161 Sep. 22, 1995 2120
21954 2439 Sep. 26, 1995 1036 2259 1161 Sep. 25, 1995 2125
21975 1161 Sep. 27, 1995 2131 2281 2439 Sep. 27, 1995 1036
21997 2439 Sep. 29, 1995 1042 2302 1161 Sep. 28, 1995 2131
22018 1161 Sep. 30, 1995 2136 2324 2439 Sep. 30, 1995 1042
22899 2367 Dec. 01, 1995 1101 3226 2367 Dec. 02, 1995 1101
 21562202c, 1998, C4, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/97JC02726 by Nat Prov Indonesia, Wiley Online Library on [24/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
7852 LEHNER ET AL.: MESOSCALE WIND MEASUREMENTS USING ERS SAR IMAGES

Incidenceangle[o]
NRCS from SAR
25.65 24.70 23.75 22.80 21.85 20.90 19.95 .... NRCS from CMOD4 .
.
15 m/s
I ' I ' I ' I ' I ' I ' I .. -' ' 13 m/s
11 m/s
0 0

Z -4
2o 2o

-6

4o 4o
Distance in range [km]

Figure 9. Mean normalized radar backscattercross

section(NRCS) in range of ERS-1 SAR image versus
6o 6o incidence
an[lein comparison
to theNRCSfor11,13,
and 15 m s-• computedby CMOD4.

8o 8o
The KNMI received the values from offshore plat-
forms. It was not possibleto get detailed information
on measurement and calibration of the data. The sen-
sor height at those platformsis normally higher than
80 60 40 20 0
50 m, and wind speedis reducedby a prescribedwind
Distance in range [km] profile. The analyzedwind fields of the DWD are com-
Figure 8. ERS-1SARimage22899-2367 takenonDe- puted from an atmosphericmodel on a 0.5ø x 0.5ø grid
cember1, 1995,at 1101UTC in the areaof the Gullfaks and improvedby insertingavailablegroundtruth mea-
oil field west of the Norwegiancoast. The isotachsare surements.The data from R/V Gaussare taken by a
givenin m s-1. The star denotes
the positionof the sensorin 19.5-m height,which is regularlymaintained.
researchvessel(R/V) Gauss. The arrow points to a The SAR measurements of wind direction and wind
platform in the Statfjord field.
speedagreewell with the R/V Gaussmeasurements.
The wind speedfrom KNMI is 4.2 m s-1 largerthan
from SAR. The direction is turned 20 ø counterclock-
ambiguity. By looking at the wind shadowingbehind wise. The DWD and KNMI wind speedswere taken 1
the oil platforms the ambiguity can be removed, and hour later, differingfrom eachother by about 6 m s-•.
the wind direction is estimatedto 170ø (wind streaks The SAR measurement lies between these two values.
and shadowsare presentin the SAR image but are not From the weather charts we concludea homogeneous
reproducedin Figure 8). Using the CMOD4 and this wind situationfor the area coveredby the SAR image.
wind direction, wind speedsare calculatedfor the whole This is supported by the time seriesmeasuredfrom the
SAR image. Figure 9 showsthe mean NRCS in range R/V Gauss.
from the recalibrated SAR image in comparisonto the Figures 10 and 11 showscatterplotsof groundtruth
expectedNRCS from CMOD4 for constantwind speeds measurements versus the values from the SAR for all
of 11, 13, and 15 m s-• . The meanwind speedoverthe scenesconsidered. Out of the 20 SAR images, 14
wholeimageis 14.3m s-•; onlyin the immediatenear showeddistinct wind streaks. In Figure 10 a compari-
rangeit dropsdownto --,12.5m s-•. Table 2 givesa sonof wind directionfromSAR imagesto KNMI ground
comparisonof the computed wind speedsto the differ- truth measurementsis given. The measurementscom-
ent ground truth measurements. pare well with a bias of 1.53ø and a correlation of 0.99.

Table 2. Ground Truth and ERS SAR Data

Wind Speed,m s- • Wind Direction,deg Time, UTC

R/V Gauss 15.3 167 1100
KNMI 18.5 150 1200
DWD 12.3 156 1200
ERS SAR 14.3 170 1100

Wind speedsare u•o, and the time is on December 1, 1995. KNMI is

the Royal NetherlandsMeteorologicalInstitute, and DWD is the German
weather service.
 21562202c, 1998, C4, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/97JC02726 by Nat Prov Indonesia, Wiley Online Library on [24/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
LEHNER ET AL.: MESOSCALE WIND MEASUREMENTS USING ERS SAR IMAGES 7853

360 ' ' ' I ' ' ' I ' ' ' I ' ' ' I ' ' ' I ' ' ' 5. Comparisons to the Mesoscale Wind
Model GESIMA
300
High-resolutionwave and current models require de-
tailed wind information to calculate hydrographic pa-
rameters. It was important for us to test the ca-
240
pability of our algorithm to reproduce spatial varia-
tions of the wind field. Since no area-coveringmeasur-
180 ing methods exist, we used the mesoscaleatmospheric
model Geesthachtsimulationmodel (GESIMA), devel-
oped at GKSS Research Centre to estimate the wind
120 field around the island Riigen situated before the Ger-
man coast in the Baltic Sea. It is a three-dimensional
nonhydrostatic model of the atmospheric circulation
6O
with terrain-following coordinates. A detailed descrip-
/ bias= 1.53degi tion of the modelis givenby Kapitza and Eppel[1992].
/ cor. = 0.99 -
0 , , , I , , , I , , , I , , , I , , , I s e , An overview of sample applications is given by Eppel
0 60 120 180 240 300 360 et al. [1995]. The ERS-1 SAR imagefrom August12,
SAR wind streak [deg] 1991, at 2107 UTC was used to compute the wind field
with a constant wind direction of 290ø. For our compar-
Figure 10. Scatterplot of the wind directions of the
isons, GESIMA was run for neutral atmosphere with a
SAR versusthe Royal Netherlands MeteorologicalIn-
stitute (KNMI) data set. horizontal grid cell size of I km and variable grid size
in the vertical. The lower boundary condition for the
friction velocityoverthe seais givenby Charnock'srela-
Comparisonsto wind directionsof DWD showeda much tion. Over land the variable bottom stress is taken into
higher bias of 24ø with wind directionsof DWD being account from land use charts. For the upper boundary
generallyturned to the right. Figure 11 showsthe scat- conditionat 1500 m, height stationary wind speedof 16
terplot of wind speedwith a biasof 0.6 m s-• and a m s-1 comingfrom 306ø wasassumed.
correlation of 0.78. Figure 12 showsisolinesof wind speed as computed
From the closeagreementof SAR data with the R/V by GESIMA, and Figure 13 showsisolinesas computed
Gauss and KNMI data we conclude that the SAR is by CMOD4. Wind direction and relative changesin
capableto derivevalid wind fieldson a large scale. This the wind speed due to shadowingeffects,particularly
is a strongmotivationto investigatethe SAR wind fields behind the white cliffsof Riigen, are clearly visible.
on a smaller scale.

20

18
ß

• 16
• 14 60..::,:..::,.::
::......:......:..:..:,
..:::.**.:..**..:.:.::::,.,..:.,.:...:..:
.........
:;...
•!,:**,,:•**.....,;...•:;•(•
....g.:•
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. =======================================================
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.............................
80 '
100
0 , I • I , I t I , I , I , I , I , I •
Distance [kin]
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
SAR wind speed[m/s] Figure 12. Wind speedscomputedby the Geesthacht
simulationmodel of the atmosphere(GESIMA). The
Figure 11. Scatterplot of the wind speedsof the SAR solidlinesrepresent
isotachs
in m s-• . The imagecenter
versus the KNMI data set. is at 54.5øN and 13.25øE.
 21562202c, 1998, C4, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/97JC02726 by Nat Prov Indonesia, Wiley Online Library on [24/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
7854 LEHNER ET AL.- MESOSCALEWIND MEASUREMENTSUSING ERS SAR IMAGES

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::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
•.o
Cell
Size :.o •o.o•o. .
[km]
;:"'•'W'
'•-•--
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..... Figure 14. Wind speedscomputed with a constant
-:.-• :!!?:::::;;,.-.-.'..:'-'.-'•,•?)..'--.:::•';,'•:::'::•:ii::i::
............ ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
,:.:•.' wind direction of 270ø from the ERS-1 SAR image on
0 '•
December 1, 1995, at 1101 UTC. The solid line indicates
0 20 40 60 80 100 the mean; 90570of the values lie between the dashed
Distance [km] lines.

Figure 13. Wind speedscomputed by the CMOD4

out of the ERS-1 SAR data. The solid lines represent uncertaintyin wind direction,and the computation
of
isotachsin m s-•. The imagecenteris at 54.5øNand
13.25øE. powerloss.Figure14 showsthe windspeedvaluescom-
putedwith the CMOD4 for differentgrid cellsizesof
the ERS-1 SAR imagefrom December1, 1995,at 1101
The SAR image showsmuch finer detail in wind UTC, shownin Figure 8. Four 40- x 40-km areaswere
structure and a higher variability in wind direction. selectedfrom the image,and the power-loss-corrected
This is due to the difference between the snapshot of NRCS expressed in linearunitswasaveragedovereach
ERS-1 SAR of a highly turbulent wind field and the area. As SARincidence angle,the valuein the middleof
mesoscalemodel simulation assuminga stationary sit- the grid cellwastaken.Thenthe windspeedwascom-
uation. On the oceansurfacenorth of Riigen the SAR putedwith a fixeddirectionof 355ø that wasdeduced
imageshowswind rolls from whichthe the wind direc- from wind streaks. The 180ø ambiguity was resolved
tion is derived. These features cannot be reproduced by lookingat windshadowing behindthe oil platforms.
by the GESIMA model. So the SAR data give a lot of The procedurewasrepeatedusingsmallerareasdown
additional
information on the turbulent structure of the to a size of 0.1 x 0.1 km. In Figure 14 the resulting
atmosphere.East of the islandof Riigen,the wind shad- wind speedvaluesare plotted versusthe corresponding
owingshowsthe sameorder of magnitude. The wind grid cell size. The meanvaluesfor eacharea, shownas
speeddropsdownto about6 m s-• behindthe island a solidline, are nearlyconstantat 15 m s-•. The 90570
before picking up again toward the open ocean. The confidenceintervals, shown as dashed lines, are narrow
geometricallocationof the wind shadowingin the SAR and between1- and 10-kmgrid cellsizeonly,slightlyde-
and GESIMA data is slightly different, showingagain
that the resultsof GESIMA yield a muchsmoothersolu-
tion than the distribution of wind speed in real nature.
Since the model has been run for stationary condi-
tions, a full coincidencewith the SAR wind field cannot
be expected. We considerthe comparisonas a proof
that the developedSAR algorithm for the wind field
10 m]s-
extraction can indeed resolve spatial inhomogenitiesin _

the wind field, which in this case come from the vari-
able topographyand the variablebottom stressfor the -10
.

atmosphere. •2m/s

-15
6. Error Analysis of CMOD4-Derived i i

0 90 180 270 360

Wind Speed Wind direction [deg]

In the followingwe discussthree major sourcesof Figure 15. The dependencyof NRCS on wind direc-
error when deriving wind speedfrom SAR imagesby tion for different wind speeds. The wind direction is
CMOD4' the effectof the grid cell size,the effectof the given clockwiseto flight direction.
 21562202c, 1998, C4, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/97JC02726 by Nat Prov Indonesia, Wiley Online Library on [24/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
LEHNER ET AL.: MESOSCALE WIND MEASUREMENTS USING ERS SAR IMAGES 7855

dark in comparisonto the water surface,and the sharp

boundaryleadsafter recalibrationto a reducedNRCS
................
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the water surface because of the fact that the slid-
ing windowusedfor estimatingthe powerlossis partly
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.:.:16;
•':-'-':•i:-:-';:ii•;.'.::•:::-.•..:•:•:f•;•}•!•i•i•i:•:•i:!•s:•i.•-•:•.i
:-•'•:•
i•.:i•:.:•
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i'i
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:::•:
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over land of low backscatter. Especiallyfor ERS-1, this
leads to unrealistically low values of wind speedsnear
the coast.
•
'- :-:•:':
':'
:•.2•'
:':?"":
..•"'•:':•--.--'-"•i•i:•!i
r":"'"";-""'"•:---- •'"
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::::...
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135 7. Conclusions and Outlook
........
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:.
:•::•-•,•:::•::,:;•::::•;•::,•,:,,!::::.:::;::,:,;,•..-.i:
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.........................................
...............
It is shown that application of the ESA CMOD4 al-
gorithm to ERS-1/2 SAR imagescan give valuablein-
5 10 15 20 25
Wind speed [m/s]
formation on mesoscale wind fields over the ocean. If
wind streaksshowup in the SAR images,wind direc-
Figure 16. Estimated relative error in percentageof tion can be measured to an accuracy of 5ø. Compar-
wind speeddue to an uncertainty in wind direction of
isons to available ground truth wind speed measure-
+10 ø for an incidenceangle of 23ø. The wind direction
is givenclockwisefrom flight direction;for example,90ø ments show that the wind extraction algorithm is re-
is correspondingto downwind. liable for the prediction of coastal wind fields for dis-
tances > 3 km from shore. Recalibration of the SAR
imagesto calibrated backscattervaluesremains a prob-
lem, especiallyfor ERS-1 images near coastlines. In
pendingon area size. It is obviousthat at grid cell sizes principal, the use of ERS-2 imagesfor wind measure-
of <0.5 km the estimated wind speedsare influenced ments is recommended. The method will be used in the
by speckleeffects[Bally andFellah,1995]and errorin future to calibrate mesoscaleatmosphericmodels like
the mean wind direction. For small grid cell sizesup to the described GESIMA model. The direct use of the
5 km, point targetslike shipsor oil platformsinfluence measuredwind data, without employinga model cali-
stronglythe mean NRCS resultingin too large wind bration as an intermediatestep, will only be possibleif
speeds. SAR imagery for individual regionsbecomesavailable
The next sourceof error when deriving wind speed more frequently.Thereforethe increasedavailability of
by ERS SAR is the necessityto have information on SAR imagesof coastalareasis stronglyneededfor the
the wind direction as input into CMOD4. Usually, at worldwide demanded,improved coastal zone manage-
wind speeds
above8 m s-• the SAR imagesshowpat- ment.
terns from which the wind direction can be derived.
This direction comparesvery well to ground truth; see Acknowledgments. We are grateful to the ESA, who
Table 2. However,Figure 15 showsthe dependencyof supplied us with the ERS-1 and ERS-2 SAR data under the
AO project AO2.D113, and to the German weather service
backscatter of the ocean surface at different wind speeds
DWD for delivering the wind fields. This work was spon-
versuswind direction(clockwiseto flight direction)at soredby the German Ministry of Researchand Technology
a radar incidenceangleof 23ø. The backscatteris obvi- BMBF under contract 03F0165C.
ouslyhighestwhen the wind is blowingdownwindand
upwind at 90ø and 270ø, respectively,and lowestwhen
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