Study of sea-surface slope distribution and its effect on radar backscatter based on Global Precipitation Measurement Ku-band precipitation radar measurements

Qiushuang Yan; Jie Zhang; Chenqing Fan; Jing Wang; Junmin Meng

doi:10.1117/1.JRS.12.016006

4 January 2018 Study of sea-surface slope distribution and its effect on radar backscatter based on Global Precipitation Measurement Ku-band precipitation radar measurements

Qiushuang Yan, Jie Zhang, Chenqing Fan, Jing Wang, Junmin Meng

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Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, Vol. 12, Issue 1, 016006 (January 2018). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JRS.12.016006

Abstract

The collocated normalized radar backscattering cross-section measurements from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Ku-band precipitation radar (KuPR) and the winds from the moored buoys are used to study the effect of different sea-surface slope probability density functions (PDFs), including the Gaussian PDF, the Gram–Charlier PDF, and the Liu PDF, on the geometrical optics (GO) model predictions of the radar backscatter at low incidence angles (0 deg to 18 deg) at different sea states. First, the peakedness coefficient in the Liu distribution is determined using the collocations at the normal incidence angle, and the results indicate that the peakedness coefficient is a nonlinear function of the wind speed. Then, the performance of the modified Liu distribution, i.e., Liu distribution using the obtained peakedness coefficient estimate; the Gaussian distribution; and the Gram–Charlier distribution is analyzed. The results show that the GO model predictions with the modified Liu distribution agree best with the KuPR measurements, followed by the predictions with the Gaussian distribution, while the predictions with the Gram–Charlier distribution have larger differences as the total or the slick filtered, not the radar filtered, probability density is included in the distribution. The best-performing distribution changes with incidence angle and changes with wind speed.

CC BY: © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

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Qiushuang Yan, Jie Zhang, Chenqing Fan, Jing Wang, and Junmin Meng "Study of sea-surface slope distribution and its effect on radar backscatter based on Global Precipitation Measurement Ku-band precipitation radar measurements," Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 12(1), 016006 (4 January 2018). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JRS.12.016006

Received: 3 August 2017; Accepted: 8 December 2017; Published: 4 January 2018

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