Spire RO Thermal Profiles for Climate Studies: Initial Comparisons of the Measurements from Spire, NOAA-20 ATMS, Radiosonde, and COSMIC-2
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Radio Occultation (RO) data play an essential role in improving numerical weather prediction (NWP) and monitoring climate change. The NOAA Commercial RO Purchase Program (CDP) purchased RO data provided by Spire Global Inc. To ensure the data quality from Sp...
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MDPI AG
2023-07-01
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| Series: | Remote Sensing |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/15/3710 |
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| author | Xin Jing Shu-Peng Ho Xi Shao Tung-Chang Liu Yong Chen Xinjia Zhou |
| author_facet | Xin Jing Shu-Peng Ho Xi Shao Tung-Chang Liu Yong Chen Xinjia Zhou |
| author_sort | Xin Jing |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Radio Occultation (RO) data play an essential role in improving numerical weather prediction (NWP) and monitoring climate change. The NOAA Commercial RO Purchase Program (CDP) purchased RO data provided by Spire Global Inc. To ensure the data quality from Spire Global Inc. is consistent with other RO missions, we need to quantify their accuracy and retrieval uncertainty carefully. In this work, Spire Wet Profile (wet temperature profile) data from 7 September 2021 to 31 October 2022, processed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), and COSMIC-2 (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate-2/Formosa Satellite Mission 7) data are evaluated through comparison with NOAA-20 Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) microwave sounder measurements and collocated RS41 radiosonde measurements. Through the Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) simulation, we convert the Spire and COSMIC-2 RO retrievals to ATMS brightness temperature (BT) at sounding channels CH07 to CH14 (temperature channels), with weighting function peak heights from 8 km to 35 km, and CH19 to CH22 (water vapor channels), with weighting function peak heights ranging from 3.2 km to 6.7 km, and compare the simulations with the collocated NOAA-20 ATMS measurements over ocean. Using ATMS observations as references, Spire and COSMIC-2 BTs agree well with ATMS within 0.07 K for CH07-14 and 0.20 K for CH19-22. The trends between Spire and COSMIC-2 are consistent within 0.07 K/year over the oceans for ATMS CH07-CH13 and CH19-22, indicating that Spire/COSMIC-2 wet profiles are, in general, compatible with each other over oceans. The RO retrievals and RS41 radiosonde observation (RAOB) comparison shows that above 0.2 km altitude, RS41 RAOB matches Spire/COSMIC-2 temperature profiles well with a temperature difference of <0.13 K, and the trends between Spire and COSMIC-2 are consistent within 0.08 K/year over land, indicating that Spire/COSMIC-2 wet profiles are overall compatible with each other through RS41 RAOB measurements over land. In addition, the consistency of Spire and COSMIC-2 based on different latitude intervals, local times, and signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) through ATMS was evaluated. The results show that the performance of Spire is comparable to COSMIC-2, even though COSMIC-2 has a higher SNR. The high quality of RO profiles from Spire is expected to improve short- and medium-range global numerical weather predictions and help construct consistent climate temperature records. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T00:18:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6bb52390afac430b8048550ae49927c1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T00:18:25Z |
| publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
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| spelling | doaj.art-6bb52390afac430b8048550ae49927c12023-11-18T23:29:46ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922023-07-011515371010.3390/rs15153710Spire RO Thermal Profiles for Climate Studies: Initial Comparisons of the Measurements from Spire, NOAA-20 ATMS, Radiosonde, and COSMIC-2Xin Jing0Shu-Peng Ho1Xi Shao2Tung-Chang Liu3Yong Chen4Xinjia Zhou5Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS), Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USANOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, Center for Satellite Applications and Research, College Park, MD 20740, USACooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS), Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USACooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS), Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USANOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, Center for Satellite Applications and Research, College Park, MD 20740, USAGlobal Science & Technology, Inc., 7801 Greenway Center Drive, Suite 1100, Greenbelt, MD 20770, USAGlobal Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Radio Occultation (RO) data play an essential role in improving numerical weather prediction (NWP) and monitoring climate change. The NOAA Commercial RO Purchase Program (CDP) purchased RO data provided by Spire Global Inc. To ensure the data quality from Spire Global Inc. is consistent with other RO missions, we need to quantify their accuracy and retrieval uncertainty carefully. In this work, Spire Wet Profile (wet temperature profile) data from 7 September 2021 to 31 October 2022, processed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), and COSMIC-2 (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate-2/Formosa Satellite Mission 7) data are evaluated through comparison with NOAA-20 Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) microwave sounder measurements and collocated RS41 radiosonde measurements. Through the Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) simulation, we convert the Spire and COSMIC-2 RO retrievals to ATMS brightness temperature (BT) at sounding channels CH07 to CH14 (temperature channels), with weighting function peak heights from 8 km to 35 km, and CH19 to CH22 (water vapor channels), with weighting function peak heights ranging from 3.2 km to 6.7 km, and compare the simulations with the collocated NOAA-20 ATMS measurements over ocean. Using ATMS observations as references, Spire and COSMIC-2 BTs agree well with ATMS within 0.07 K for CH07-14 and 0.20 K for CH19-22. The trends between Spire and COSMIC-2 are consistent within 0.07 K/year over the oceans for ATMS CH07-CH13 and CH19-22, indicating that Spire/COSMIC-2 wet profiles are, in general, compatible with each other over oceans. The RO retrievals and RS41 radiosonde observation (RAOB) comparison shows that above 0.2 km altitude, RS41 RAOB matches Spire/COSMIC-2 temperature profiles well with a temperature difference of <0.13 K, and the trends between Spire and COSMIC-2 are consistent within 0.08 K/year over land, indicating that Spire/COSMIC-2 wet profiles are overall compatible with each other through RS41 RAOB measurements over land. In addition, the consistency of Spire and COSMIC-2 based on different latitude intervals, local times, and signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) through ATMS was evaluated. The results show that the performance of Spire is comparable to COSMIC-2, even though COSMIC-2 has a higher SNR. The high quality of RO profiles from Spire is expected to improve short- and medium-range global numerical weather predictions and help construct consistent climate temperature records.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/15/3710radio occultationspireCOSMIC-2NOAA-20 ATMSradiosondeinter-comparison |
| spellingShingle | Xin Jing Shu-Peng Ho Xi Shao Tung-Chang Liu Yong Chen Xinjia Zhou Spire RO Thermal Profiles for Climate Studies: Initial Comparisons of the Measurements from Spire, NOAA-20 ATMS, Radiosonde, and COSMIC-2 Remote Sensing radio occultation spire COSMIC-2 NOAA-20 ATMS radiosonde inter-comparison |
| title | Spire RO Thermal Profiles for Climate Studies: Initial Comparisons of the Measurements from Spire, NOAA-20 ATMS, Radiosonde, and COSMIC-2 |
| title_full | Spire RO Thermal Profiles for Climate Studies: Initial Comparisons of the Measurements from Spire, NOAA-20 ATMS, Radiosonde, and COSMIC-2 |
| title_fullStr | Spire RO Thermal Profiles for Climate Studies: Initial Comparisons of the Measurements from Spire, NOAA-20 ATMS, Radiosonde, and COSMIC-2 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Spire RO Thermal Profiles for Climate Studies: Initial Comparisons of the Measurements from Spire, NOAA-20 ATMS, Radiosonde, and COSMIC-2 |
| title_short | Spire RO Thermal Profiles for Climate Studies: Initial Comparisons of the Measurements from Spire, NOAA-20 ATMS, Radiosonde, and COSMIC-2 |
| title_sort | spire ro thermal profiles for climate studies initial comparisons of the measurements from spire noaa 20 atms radiosonde and cosmic 2 |
| topic | radio occultation spire COSMIC-2 NOAA-20 ATMS radiosonde inter-comparison |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/15/3710 |
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