Roughness correction method for salinity remote sensing using combined active/passive observations

Roughness-induced emission from ocean surfaces is one of the main issues that affects the retrieval accuracy of sea surface salinity remote sensing.In previous studies,the correction of roughness effect mainly depended on wind speeds retrieved from scatterometers or those provided by other means,which necessitates a high requirement for accuracy and synchronicity of wind-speed measurements.The aim of this study is to develop a novel roughness correction model of ocean emissivity for the salinity retrieval application.The combined active/passive observations of normalized radar cross-sections(NRCSs)and emissivities from ocean surfaces given by the L-band Aquarius/SAC-D mission,and the auxiliary wind directions collocated from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction(NCEP)dataset are used for model development.The model is validated against the observations and the Aquarius standard algorithms of roughness-induced emissivity correction.Comparisons between model computations and measurements indicate that the model has better accuracy in computing wind-induced brightness temperature in the upwind/downwind directions or for the surfaces with smaller NRCSs,which can be better than 0.3 K.However,for crosswind directions and larger NRCSs,the model accuracy is relatively low.A model using HH-polarized NRCSs yields better accuracy than that using VV-polarized ones.For a fair comparison to the Aquarius standard algorithms using wind speeds retrieved from multi-source data,the maximum likelihood estimation is employed to produce results combining our model calculations and those using other sources.Numerical simulations show that combined results basically have higher accuracy than the standard algorithms.

Effect of stones on the sand saltation threshold during natural sand and dust storms in a stony desert in Tsogt-Ovoo in the Gobi Desert,Mongolia

Non-erodible elements such as stones and vegetation are key to controlling wind erosion and dust emission in drylands.Stony deserts are widely distributed in the Gobi Desert,but the effect of stones on wind erosion and dust emission have not been well studied,except under artificial conditions.In this study,we evaluated the effect of stones on wind erosion and dust emission by measuring the sand saltation threshold in a stony desert in Tsogt-Ovoo in the Gobi Desert,Mongolia,under natural surface conditions during sand and dust storms.We quantified the amount of stones by measuring the roughness density,and determined the threshold friction velocity for sand saltation by measuring wind speed and sand saltation count.Our results showed that the threshold friction velocity increased with the roughness density of stones.In the northern part of the study area,where neither a surface crust nor vegetation was observed,the roughness density of stones was 0.000 in a topographic depression(TD),0.050 on a northern slope(N.SL),and 0.160 on the northern mountain(N.MT).The mean threshold friction velocity values were 0.23,0.41,and 0.57 m/s at the TD,N.SL,and N.MT sites,respectively.In the southern part of the study area,the roughness density values of stones were 0.000 and 0.070-0.320 at the TD and southern slope sites,respectively,and the mean threshold friction velocities were 0.23 and 0.45-0.71 m/s,respectively.We further compared the observed threshold friction velocities with simulated threshold friction velocities using Raupach's theoretical roughness correction and the measured roughness density values,and found that Raupach's roughness correction worked very well in the simulation of threshold friction velocity in the stony desert.This means that the results of our stone measurement can be applied to a numerical dust model.

DYNAMIC CORRECTION OF ROUGHNESS IN THE HYDRODYNAMIC MODEL

Based on the hydrodynamic model and the Xinanjiang model, the fiver stage forecasting model has been proposed. But its performance is not satisfactory as applied to estuary areas. River roughness is a sensitive parameter in the hydrodynamic model, and its value is related to some substantial uncertainties in the tidal fiver. According to roughness tests, a new method of roughness dynamic correction was developed to improve the performance of the stage model. The method was focused on the usage of observed data for the studied section, and its parameters were analyzed. Nested with the dynamic correction of roughness, the stage model was applied to the tidal reach of the Caoe River. The results demonstrate that the roughness dynamic correction can improve the simulation accuracy of the stage model, and especially has the capacity of reducing the errors at peak stages.