What affect did the new QSCAT-1/F13 processing algorithm have on the Level 2B and Level 3 QuikSCAT datasets compared to the original QSCAT-1 algorithm?
The accuracy of wind vector magnitudes in excess of 16 m/s has increased based upon the tuning from the SSM/I F13 measurements. This results in a systematic overall increase in the wind vector magnitudes, when compared to the original QSCAT-1 algorithm, but this only applies to wind speeds in excess of 16 m/s. Another improvement is in the multidimensional histogram (MUDH) rain flagging algorithm. The SeaWinds on ADEOS II mission provided tandem measurements from the SeaWinds scatterometer and the AMSR microwave radiometer, which was used to provide an “impact-based” MUDH rain flagging algorithm (IMUDH). This results in less “over-flagging” in rain-free regions, which was more problematic with the previous MUDH algorithm, especially in high wind speed regimes. A final bi-product is the availability of a higher resolution (12.5 km) level 2B product.
