Validation and Cross-Validation Methods for ASCAT

The advanced scatterometer (ASCAT) is a fan beam scatterometer carried on board the Metop series of satellites. Its primary objective is to measure ocean backscatter for the retrieval of ocean wind vectors. Two ASCAT instruments (ASCAT-A and ASCAT-B) are operational and are independently calibrated using a number of ground-based transponders. The first seven years of data from ASCAT-A have recently been processed into a climate data record. This paper describes a number of methods for cross-validating the data from the two instruments and for assessing the quality and stability of the climate data record. The methods are based on backscatter from the Amazon rainforest, mean backscatter from the open ocean, comparison of measured and modeled ocean backscatter, and ocean cone metrics. These methods show that the climate data record, which covers the period January 2007 to March 2014, has a very high stability (with trends around 0.005 dB per year), good absolute and relative calibration (better than 0.1 dB), and a good across swath calibration (peak to peak variation of less than 0.1 dB). For operational data covering the period April 2015 to March 2016, the methods indicate that ASCAT-B backscatter is around 0.1–0.2 dB higher than ASCAT-A (depending on which beam is considered). This difference is due to a combination of factors: minor changes in calibration algorithms, a minor change in the behavior of the ASCAT-A internal calibration system, and the strategy used to update calibration files in the processing system.