Three-dimensional Fusion of Spaceborne and Ground Radar Reflectivity Data Using a Neural Network–Based Approach

The spaceborne precipitation radar onboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite （TRMM PR） can provide good measurement of the vertical structure of reflectivity, while ground radar （GR） has a relatively high horizontal resolution and greater sensitivity. Fusion of TRMM PR and GR reflectivity data may maximize the advantages from both instruments. In this paper, TRMM PR and GR reflectivity data are fused using a neural network （NN）-based approach. The main steps included are： quality control of TRMM PR and GR reflectivity data; spatiotemporal matchup; GR calibration bias correction; conversion of TRMM PR data from Ku to S band; fusion of TRMM PR and GR reflectivity data with an NN method： interpolation of reflectivity data that are below PR＇s sensitivity; blind areas compensation with a distance weighting-based merging approach; combination of three types of data： data with the NN method, data below PR＇s sensitivity and data within compensated blind areas. During the NN fusion step, the TRMM PR data are taken as targets of the training NNs, and gridded GR data after horizontal downsampling at different heights are used as the input. The trained NNs are then used to obtain 3D high-resolution reflectivity from the original GR gridded data. After 3D fusion of the TRMM PR and GR reflectivity data, a more complete and finer-scale 3D radar reflectivity dataset incorporating characteristics from both the TRMM PR and GR observations can be obtained. The fused reflectivity data are evaluated based on a convective precipitation event through comparison with the high resolution TRMM PR and GR data with an interpolation algorithm.

High sidelobe effects on interferometric coherence for circular SAR imaging geometry

The coherence is a measure for the accuracy of the interferometric phase, and the synthetic aperture radar （SAR） inter- ferometric coherence is affected by several sources of the decor- relation noise. For the circular SAR （CSAR） imaging geometry, the system response function is in the form of the Bessel function which brings a high sidelobe, and the high sidelobe of CSAR will be an important factor influencing the interferometric coherence. The effect of the high sidelobe on the coherence is analyzed and deduced. Based on the interferometric characteristics of the slight difference in the viewing angles and the potential pixel off- set in the interferometric SAR （InSAR） images, a relation between the radar impulse response and the coherence loss function is derived. From the relational model, the coherence loss function due to the high sidelobe of CSAR is then deduced, and compared with that of the conventional SAR. It is shown that the high sidelobe of CSAR focusing signal will severely affect the baseline decorre- lation and coregistration decorrelation. Simulation results confirm the theoretical analysis and quantitatively show the baseline and coregistration decorrelation degradation due to the high sidelobes of CSAR.

Circular SAR processing using an improved omega-k type algorithm

An improved circular synthetic aperture radar（CSAR） imaging algorithm of omega-k（ω-k） type mainly for reconstructing an image on a cylindrical surface is proposed.In the typical CSAR ω-k algorithm,the rage trajectory is approximated by Taylor series expansion to the quadratic terms,which limits the valid synthetic aperture length and the angular reconstruction range severely.Based on the model of the CSAR echo signal,the proposed algorithm directly transforms the signal to the two-dimensional（2D） wavenumber domain,not using approximation processing to the range trajectory.Based on form of the signal spectrum in the wavenumber domain,the formula for the wavenumber domain interpolation of the w-k algorithm is deduced,and the wavenumber spectrum of the reference point used for bulk compression is obtained from numerical method.The improved CSAR ω-k imaging algorithm increases the valid synthetic aperture length and the angular area greatly and hence improves the angular resolution of the cylindrical imaging.Additionally,the proposed algorithm can be repeated on different cylindrical surfaces to achieve three dimensional（3D） image reconstruction.The 3D spatial resolution of the CSAR system is discussed,and the simulation results validate the correctness of the analysis and the feasibility of the algorithm.

Statistical Modeling with a Hidden Markov Tree and High-resolution Interpolation for Spaceborne Radar Reflectivity in the Wavelet Domain

With the increasing availability of precipitation radar data from space,enhancement of the resolution of spaceborne precipitation observations is important,particularly for hazard prediction and climate modeling at local scales relevant to extreme precipitation intensities and gradients.In this paper,the statistical characteristics of radar precipitation reflectivity data are studied and modeled using a hidden Markov tree(HMT)in the wavelet domain.Then,a high-resolution interpolation algorithm is proposed for spaceborne radar reflectivity using the HMT model as prior information.Owing to the small and transient storm elements embedded in the larger and slowly varying elements,the radar precipitation data exhibit distinct multiscale statistical properties,including a non-Gaussian structure and scale-to-scale dependency.An HMT model can capture well the statistical properties of radar precipitation,where the wavelet coefficients in each sub-band are characterized as a Gaussian mixture model(GMM),and the wavelet coefficients from the coarse scale to fine scale are described using a multiscale Markov process.The state probabilities of the GMM are determined using the expectation maximization method,and other parameters,for instance,the variance decay parameters in the HMT model are learned and estimated from high-resolution ground radar reflectivity images.Using the prior model,the wavelet coefficients at finer scales are estimated using local Wiener filtering.The interpolation algorithm is validated using data from the precipitation radar onboard the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission satellite,and the reconstructed results are found to be able to enhance the spatial resolution while optimally reproducing the local extremes and gradients.

High-precision temperature retrieval algorithm and verification for mesospheric airglow spectrum photometer

Photometric technology,characterized by its compact structure and relatively high stability,finds wide application in measuring airglow spectra.This instrumentation is anticipated to assume a pivotal role as the primary equipment for extensive network observations of middle and upper atmospheric temperatures in China,thereby providing crucial support for space environmental monitoring and atmospheric dynamic research.Nevertheless,susceptibility to various factors such as instrument inconsistency,variability in observation conditions,and alterations in the background atmospheric environment across different stations poses a challenge,potentially resulting in data inconsistencies in network observations.In response to these challenges,we propose a multiple-parameter iterative inversion(MPII)algorithm for temperature retrieval based on a mesospheric airglow spectrum photometer(MASP)developed by our research group.This algorithm accurately identifies the center of the image circle,corrects image distortion,and thereby obtains an accurate synthetic spectrum reflective of actual observations.It encompasses five adjustable parameters:sky background light,atmospheric temperature,filter temperature,optical system focal length,and degree of synthetic spectrum modulation.Compared to traditional methods,significant enhancements in the accuracy of the inverted temperature are achieved.To validate the effectiveness of the MPII algorithm,we conducted combined active and passive remote sensing synchronous measurements using MASP in conjunction with a sodium fluorescence Doppler lidar developed by the National Space Science Center.By utilizing the lidar temperature as a reference,atmospheric background radiation is mitigated from the MASP data,and the temperature is inverted using the MPII algorithm.Comparative analysis with the traditional method reveals that temperatures calculated by the MPII algorithm exhibit better consistency than those observed by the lidar.

Fusion of Ground-Based and Spaceborne Radar Precipitation Based on Spatial Domain Regularization

High-quality and accurate precipitation estimations can be obtained by integrating precipitation information measures using ground-based and spaceborne radars in the same target area.Estimating the true precipitation state is a typical inverse problem for a given set of noisy radar precipitation observations.The regularization method can appropriately constrain the inverse problem to obtain a unique and stable solution.For different types of precipitation with different prior distributions,the L_(1) and L_(2) norms were more effective in constraining stratiform and convective precipitation,respectively.As a combination of L_(1) and L_(2) norms,the Huber norm is more suitable for mixed precipitation types.This study uses different regularization norms to combine precipitation data from the C-band dual-polarization ground radar(CDP)and dual-frequency precipitation radar(DPR)on the Global Precipitation Measurement(GPM)mission core satellite.Compared to single-source radar data,the fused figures contain more information and present a comprehensive precipitation structure encompassing the reflectivity and precipitation fields.In 27 precipitation cases,the fusion results utilizing the Huber norm achieved a structural similarity index measure(SSIM)and a peak signal-to-noise ratio(PSNR)of 0.8378 and 30.9322,respectively,compared with the CDP data.The fusion results showed that the Huber norm effectively amalgamate the features of convective and stratiform precipitation,with a reduction in the mean absolute error(MAE;16.1%and 22.6%,respectively)and root-mean-square error(RMSE;11.7%and 13.6%,respectively)compared to the 1-norm and 2-norm.Moreover,in contrast to the fusion results of scale recursive estimation(SRE),the Huber norm exhibits superior capability in capturing the localized precipitation intensity and reconstructing the detailed features of precipitation.