Towards Quikscat-Derived Coastal Winds

This paper presents the implementation of the Land Contribution Ratio (LCR) methodology for the pencil-beam scat-terometer QuikSCAT, with the aim of improving the coastal sampling of the retrieved winds. This methodology is presented with two different models of the Spatial Response Function (SRF): the analytical model and the parameterized one, which is based on a pre-computed Look-up- Table (LUT) of SRFs provided by the Brigham Young University (BYU). Furthermore, a method to characterize the slice σ0 noise (Kp) is presented and compared to the noise information provided in the full resolution QuikSCAT files. The preliminary results show that despite the overall consistency between the two SRF models, their discrepancies may induce LCR differences up to few percent. Furthermore, the Kp estimated by means of the slice Normalized Radar Cross Section (σ0) is different from the Kp provided in the files, while such differencies are larger for certain slices and wind conditions. Such discrepancies can impact the wind field retrievals and, as such, should be further investigated.