Evaluation of Sea Surface Wind Products from Scatterometer Onboard the Chinese HY-2D Satellite

The Chinese new marine dynamic environment satellite HY-2D was launched on 19 May 2021, carrying a Ku-band scatterometer (named HSCAT-D). In this study, wind products observed by the HSCAT-D were validated by comparing with wind data from the U.S. National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) buoys and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model. The statistical results show that the HSCAT-D winds have a good agreement with the buoys' wind measurements: in comparison with buoy winds, the wind speed standard deviation (STD) and root-mean-squared errors (RMSE) of direction were 0.78 m/s and 14.10 degrees, respectively. Other scatterometers' wind data are also employed for comparisons, including the HY-2B scatterometer (HSCAT-B), HY-2C scatterometer (HSCAT-C), and MetOp-B scatterometer (ASCAT-B) winds. The statistical results indicate that errors for HSCAT-D winds are smaller than HSCAT-C but a little bit larger than HSCAT-B. The spectral analysis shows that the HSCAT-D wind products contain less small-scale information than ASCAT-B. Moreover, the Extended Triple Collocation (ETC) results show that the HSCAT-D wind product is of good quality and well-calibrated. We believe that the HSCAT-D wind products will be helpful for the scientific community, as shown by the encouraging validation results.

Automated summary

The Chinese new marine dynamic environment satellite HY-2D, equipped with HSCAT-D scatterometer, was launched on May 19, 2021. This study validated the wind products observed by HSCAT-D by comparing them with wind data from NDBC buoys and ECMWF model. The statistical results showed a good agreement between HSCAT-D winds and buoy wind measurements, with a wind speed STD of 0.78 m/s and direction RMSE of 14.10 degrees. Comparison with other scatterometers' wind data and spectral analysis demonstrated the reliability and characteristics of HSCAT-D wind products. The ETC results confirmed the good quality and calibration of HSCAT-D wind product.