High-resolution sea surface wind speeds of Super Typhoon Lekima (2019) retrieved by Gaofen-3 SAR

Gaofen-3(GF-3)is the first Chinese spaceborne multi-polarization synthetic aperture radar(SAR)instrument at C-band(5.43 GHz).In this paper,we use data collected from GF-3 to observe Super Typhoon Lekima(2019)in the East China Sea.Using a VH-polarized wide ScanSAR(WSC)image,ocean surface wind speeds at 100m horizontal resolution are obtained at 21:56:59 UTC on 8 August 2019,with the maximum wind speed,38.9 m·s^(-1).Validating the SAR-retrieved winds with buoymeasured wind speeds,we find that the root mean square error(RMSE)is 1.86 m·s^(-1),and correlation coefficient,0.92.This suggests that wind speeds retrieved from GF-3 SAR are reliable.Both the European Centre for MediumRange Weather Forecasts(ECMWF)fine grid operational forecast products with spatial resolution,and China Global/Regional Assimilation and Prediction Enhance System(GRAPES)have good performances on surface wind prediction under weak wind speed condition(<24 m·s^(-1)),but underestimate the maximum wind speed when the storm is intensified as a severe tropical storm(>24m·s^(-1)).With respect to SAR-retrieved wind speeds,the RMSEs are 5.24 m·s^(–1) for ECMWF and 5.17 m·s^(–1) for GRAPES,with biases of 4.16 m·s^(–1) for ECMWF and 3.84 m·s^(-1)for GRAPES during Super Typhoon Lekima(2019).