Determination of vertical wind shear from linear combinations of satellite radiance gradients: A theoretical study

Abstract

By applying the thermal wind equation to the radiative transfer equation, one can derive the vertical wind shear from horizontal gradients of radiances measured by satellite. The vertical resolution of the wind shear can be optimized by using linear combinations of radiance gradients. A theoretical study was conducted to determine the optimal pressure intervals over which wind shears could be resolved when using weighting functions associated with the SSH sounder of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, and those associated with the TOYS instrument package on the TIROS-N/NOAA series of operational satellites. Two distinct computational approaches are presented and their respective results are summarized.