Ice water path retrievals from Meteosat-9 using quantile regression neural networks

<p>The relationship between geostationary radiances and ice water path (IWP) is complex, and traditional retrieval approaches are not optimal. This work applies machine learning to improve the IWP retrieval from Meteosat-9 observations, with a focus on low latitudes, training the models agains...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: A. Amell, P. Eriksson, S. Pfreundschuh
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2022-10-01
Series:Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
Online Access:https://amt.copernicus.org/articles/15/5701/2022/amt-15-5701-2022.pdf
_version_ 1797995995838021632
author A. Amell
P. Eriksson
S. Pfreundschuh
author_facet A. Amell
P. Eriksson
S. Pfreundschuh
author_sort A. Amell
collection DOAJ
description <p>The relationship between geostationary radiances and ice water path (IWP) is complex, and traditional retrieval approaches are not optimal. This work applies machine learning to improve the IWP retrieval from Meteosat-9 observations, with a focus on low latitudes, training the models against retrievals based on CloudSat. Advantages of machine learning include avoiding explicit physical assumptions on the data, an efficient use of information from all channels, and easily leveraging spatial information.</p> <p>Thermal infrared (IR) retrievals are used as input to achieve a performance independent of the solar angle. They are compared with retrievals including solar reflectances as well as a subset of IR channels for compatibility with historical sensors. The retrievals are accomplished with quantile regression neural networks. This network type provides case-specific uncertainty estimates, compatible with non-Gaussian errors, and is flexible enough to be applied to different network architectures.</p> <p>Spatial information is incorporated into the network through a convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture. This choice outperforms architectures that only work pixelwise. In fact, the CNN shows a good retrieval performance by using only IR channels. This makes it possible to compute diurnal cycles, a problem that CloudSat cannot resolve due to its limited temporal and spatial sampling. These retrievals compare favourably with IWP retrievals in CLAAS, a dataset based on a traditional approach. These results highlight the possibilities to overcome limitations from physics-based approaches using machine learning while providing efficient, probabilistic IWP retrieval methods. Moreover, they suggest this first work can be extended to higher latitudes as well as that geostationary data can be considered as a complement to the upcoming Ice Cloud Imager mission, for example, to bridge the gap in temporal sampling with respect to space-based radars.</p>
first_indexed 2024-04-11T10:10:27Z
format Article
id doaj.art-51240ebea1e6491baa11486256e3f8f3
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1867-1381
1867-8548
language English
last_indexed 2024-04-11T10:10:27Z
publishDate 2022-10-01
publisher Copernicus Publications
record_format Article
series Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
spelling doaj.art-51240ebea1e6491baa11486256e3f8f32022-12-22T04:30:07ZengCopernicus PublicationsAtmospheric Measurement Techniques1867-13811867-85482022-10-01155701571710.5194/amt-15-5701-2022Ice water path retrievals from Meteosat-9 using quantile regression neural networksA. AmellP. ErikssonS. Pfreundschuh<p>The relationship between geostationary radiances and ice water path (IWP) is complex, and traditional retrieval approaches are not optimal. This work applies machine learning to improve the IWP retrieval from Meteosat-9 observations, with a focus on low latitudes, training the models against retrievals based on CloudSat. Advantages of machine learning include avoiding explicit physical assumptions on the data, an efficient use of information from all channels, and easily leveraging spatial information.</p> <p>Thermal infrared (IR) retrievals are used as input to achieve a performance independent of the solar angle. They are compared with retrievals including solar reflectances as well as a subset of IR channels for compatibility with historical sensors. The retrievals are accomplished with quantile regression neural networks. This network type provides case-specific uncertainty estimates, compatible with non-Gaussian errors, and is flexible enough to be applied to different network architectures.</p> <p>Spatial information is incorporated into the network through a convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture. This choice outperforms architectures that only work pixelwise. In fact, the CNN shows a good retrieval performance by using only IR channels. This makes it possible to compute diurnal cycles, a problem that CloudSat cannot resolve due to its limited temporal and spatial sampling. These retrievals compare favourably with IWP retrievals in CLAAS, a dataset based on a traditional approach. These results highlight the possibilities to overcome limitations from physics-based approaches using machine learning while providing efficient, probabilistic IWP retrieval methods. Moreover, they suggest this first work can be extended to higher latitudes as well as that geostationary data can be considered as a complement to the upcoming Ice Cloud Imager mission, for example, to bridge the gap in temporal sampling with respect to space-based radars.</p>https://amt.copernicus.org/articles/15/5701/2022/amt-15-5701-2022.pdf
spellingShingle A. Amell
P. Eriksson
S. Pfreundschuh
Ice water path retrievals from Meteosat-9 using quantile regression neural networks
Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
title Ice water path retrievals from Meteosat-9 using quantile regression neural networks
title_full Ice water path retrievals from Meteosat-9 using quantile regression neural networks
title_fullStr Ice water path retrievals from Meteosat-9 using quantile regression neural networks
title_full_unstemmed Ice water path retrievals from Meteosat-9 using quantile regression neural networks
title_short Ice water path retrievals from Meteosat-9 using quantile regression neural networks
title_sort ice water path retrievals from meteosat 9 using quantile regression neural networks
url https://amt.copernicus.org/articles/15/5701/2022/amt-15-5701-2022.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT aamell icewaterpathretrievalsfrommeteosat9usingquantileregressionneuralnetworks
AT periksson icewaterpathretrievalsfrommeteosat9usingquantileregressionneuralnetworks
AT spfreundschuh icewaterpathretrievalsfrommeteosat9usingquantileregressionneuralnetworks