Weibull Distribution for the Global Surface Current Speeds Obtained from Satellite Altimetry

Author

Chu, Peter C.

Author_Institution

Naval Postgrad. Sch., Monterey, CA

Volume

3

fYear

2008

fDate

7-11 July 2008

Abstract

Near-real time ocean surface currents derived from satellite altimeter (JASON-1, GFO, ENVISAT) and scatterometer (QSCAT) data on 1deg times 1deg resolution for world oceans (59.5deg S to 59.5deg N) are available online as "Ocean Surface Current Analyses - Real Time (OSCAR)". The probability distribution function (PDF) of the current speeds (w), constructed from global OSCAR data from 1992 to 2008, satisfies the two-parameter Weibull distribution reasonably well. Knowledge on PDF of w will improve the ensemble horizontal flux calculation, which contributes to the climate studies.

Keywords

Weibull distribution; height measurement; oceanography; AD 1992 to 2008; ENVISAT data; GFO data; JASON-1 data; OSCAR database; QSCAT data; Weibull distribution; global surface current speed; ocean surface currents; probability distribution function; satellite altimetry; Altimetry; Ocean temperature; Probability distribution; Radar measurements; Residual stresses; Satellites; Sea surface; Space heating; Surface topography; Weibull distribution; OSCAR data; Probability distribution function; Weibull distribution; kurtosis; skewness;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2008. IGARSS 2008. IEEE International

Conference_Location

Boston, MA

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2807-6

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-2808-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.2008.4779282

Filename

4779282