retrieval of surface air specific humidity over the ocean using amsr-e measurements检索使用amsr - e在海洋表面的空气含湿量测量.pdfVIP

Sensors 2008, 8, 8016-8026; DOI: 10.3390/s8128016 OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article Retrieval of Surface Air Specific Humidity Over the Ocean Using AMSR-E Measurements Masahisa Kubota * and Tsutomu Hihara School of Marine Science and Technology, Tokai University/ Orido, 3-20-1, Shimizu, Shizuoka, Shizuoka, JAPAN 424-8610; E-Mail: tsutomu@ mercury.oi.u-tokai.ac.jp (T. H.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: kubota@mercury.oi.u-tokai.ac.jp (M. K.); Tel.: +81-54-337-0916; Fax: +81-54-338-9983 Received: 7 October 2008; in revised form: 29 November 2008 / Accepted: 3 December 2008 / Published: 8 December 2008 Abstract: We have developed a new algorithm to estimate the surface air specific humidity over the ocean from AMSR-E data. It should be noted that remarkably reduced random errors of the estimated surface air specific humidity result from using the surface air specific humidity provided by reanalysis data. We validated our new algorithm using independent ship and buoy data. The bias, RMS error, and correlation coefficient of the products obtained using our algorithm for global buoys are 0.38 g/kg, 0.61 g/kg and 0.99, respectively. It should be noted that surface specific humidity having similar accuracy to the reanalysis data near in situ data could be derived from AMSR-E data by the present algorithm. Keywords: AMSR-E, surface air specific humidity, ocean, microwave radiometer 1. Introdu