Trends and variability in 12+ years of pole-to-pole, fine resolution wind observations from MISR

The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) Level 2 Cloud product released in July 2012 provides an ongoing 12+ year record of height-resolved, cloud-tracked winds (CTW) gridded at 17.6 km resolution. Aboard the Terra satellite, MISR observes CTW via the parallax and motion of cloud features over a 7 minute duration as observed during an overpass from seven of nine along-track camera view angles, ranging from 70.5° forward to 70.5° aft of nadir. Advantages of MISR CTW relative to other satellite wind products include fine spatial and temporal resolution, insensitivity to radiometric calibration, independence from atmospheric thermal structure, and pole-to-pole coverage. Recent software developments suggest that the data latency can be reduced from about 12 hours to 5 hours, potentially broadening the range of science applications from research and reanalysis to operational assimilation for weather forecasting.

Here, we will characterize the MISR cloud-tracked wind retrieval through comparison with collocated wind observations from other satellite instruments, specifically GOES, Meteosat, and MODIS. We will also evaluate the curl and divergence of MISR's gridded, 17.6 km resolution wind field relative to regional reanalysis.

We will then investigate seasonal and interannual patterns and trends in MISR wind observations, including divergence and curl. We will compare these patterns and trends with those found in equivalently sampled reanalysis data.