Intercalibration of Backscatter Measurements among Ku-Band Scatterometers Onboard the Chinese HY-2 Satellite Constellation

The Chinese HY-2D satellite was launched on 19 May 2021, carrying a Ku-band scatterometer. Together with the operating scatterometers onboard the HY-2B and HY-2C satellites, the HY-2 series scatterometer constellation was built, constituting different satellite orbits and hence opportunity for mutual intercomparison and intercalibration. To achieve intercalibration of backscatter measurements for these scatterometers, this study presents and performs three methods including: (1) direct comparison using collocated measurements, in which the nonlinear calibrations can also be derived; (2) intercalibration over the Amazon rainforest; (3) and the double-difference technique based on backscatter simulations over the global oceans, in which a geophysical model function and numerical weather prediction (NWP) model winds are needed. The results obtained using the three methods are comparable, i.e., the differences among them are within 0.1 dB. The intercalibration results are validated by comparing the HY-2 series scatterometer wind speeds with NWP model wind speeds. The curves of wind speed bias for the HY-2 series scatterometers are quite similar, particularly in wind speeds ranging from 4 to 20 m/s. Based on the well-intercalibrated backscatter measurements, consistent sea surface wind products from HY-2 series scatterometers can be produced, and greatly benefit data applications.

Automated summary

This study compared and validated the backscatter measurements of the HY-2 series scatterometers using three methods of intercalibration, showing that the results obtained from these methods are comparable with differences within 0.1 dB.