Implementation of scatterometer wind processing at KNMI - final report

Scatterometers provide accurate and spatially consistent near-surface wind information.
Hardware permitting, there is a continuous series of scatterometers with at times ideal coverage
of the ocean surface wind in the coming two decades. ERS scatterometer observations have
proven important for the forecasting of dynamical weather, such as tropical cyclones. Moreover,
the use of scatterometer winds in nowcasting, short range forecasting, and other applications are worth mentioned. The methodology developed for the successful application and assimilation of ERS winds was generalised to include the newer scatterometer concepts, such as SeaWinds. SeaWinds on QuikScat provides great coverage over the oceans. Quality monitoring, rain contamination, wind direction noise characteristics, and wind direction ambiguity selection were investigated (Stoffelen et al, 2000), now permitting routine and successful use in weather forecasting. The EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facilities (SAF) facilitate much of the
development described in this report and the BCRS project reported on here supports the
implementation of both routine ERS and SeaWinds scatterometer processing. Due to the fact
that ERS operations hampered while the project was running, the focus was more directed
towards SeaWinds implementation in order to be able to satisfy the users with a near-real time
scatterometer wind product.