IGF::OT::IGF PROPOSAL TITLE: IMPROVEMENTS TO THE VECTOR WIND CLIMATE RECORD USING RAPIDSCAT AS A COMMON REFERENCE AND AQUARIUS/SMAP FOR HIGH WINDS IN RAIN. THIS PROPOSED INVESTIGATION IS A CONTINUATION OF REMOTE SENSING SYSTEMS (RSS) ON-GOING OVWST RESEARCH AND PRODUCT GENERATION. AS IN THE PAST, THE RESEARCH IS DIRECTED TOWARDS IMPROVING THE VECTOR WIND (VW) RETRIEVALS COMING FROM SATELLITE MICROWAVE SCATTEROMETERS. THE RESEARCH ELEMENTS INCLUDE (1) THE GEOPHYSICAL MODEL FUNCTION (GMF) THAT RELATES RADAR BACKSCATTER TO THE VW, (2) THE DIURNAL VARIABILITY OF VW PARTICULARLY AS IT RELATES TO THE INTERCALIBRATION OF SCATTEROMETERS AND (3) THE EFFECT OF HIGH WINDS AND RAIN ON VW RETRIEVALS. WITH RESPECT TO PRODUCT GENERATION, THIS PROPOSAL ADDS THE VW DATASETS FROM ASCAT-B, OSCAT, AND RAPIDSCAT TO THE EXISTING COLLECTION OF VW DATASETS FOR ERS-1, NSCAT, QUIKSCAT, SEAWINDS, AND ASCAT-A. WITH THE EVER INCREASING NUMBER OF SCATTEROMETERS IN OPERATION, WE ARE PUTTING MORE FOCUS ON BRINGING UNIFORMITY TO THE VARIOUS VW DATASETS SO THAT THESE DATASETS CAN BE USED AS A COMBINED MULTI-SENSOR PRODUCT. TO ACHIEVE THIS CONSISTENCY, WE WILL FIRST ESTABLISH A COMMON WIND SPEED REFERENCE FOR ALL SCATTEROMETERS. THIS WILL BE DONE BY USING WIND SPEED RETRIEVALS FROM THE LARGE ARRAY OF PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE SATELLITE MICROWAVE RADIOMETERS. THESE MULTI-DECADAL, MULTI-SENSOR WIND RETRIEVALS ARE PART OF THE NASA SPONSORED OCEAN PRODUCTS EARTH SYSTEM DATA RECORD (OP-ESDR). THE OP-ESDR IS A WELL-ESTABLISHED CLIMATE PRODUCT THAT IS WIDELY USED BY THE EARTH SCIENCE COMMUNITY. ONCE ALL VW DATASETS ARE INTERCALIBRATED TO THE OP-ESDR, WE WILL DO A MORE DETAILED ANALYSIS USING NASA S NEW RAPIDSCAT AS A COMMON VW REFERENCE. FOR THE FIRST TIME, RAPIDSCAT WILL PROVIDE AN ABUNDANCE OF NEAR COINCIDENCE COMPARISONS OF VW RETRIEVALS FROM L-, C-, AND KU-BAND SCATTEROMETERS. WE EXPECT THE RAPIDSCAT COMPARISONS WILL REVEAL SMALL INCONSISTENCIES IN THE L-, C-, AND KU-GMFS THAT WERE NOT APPARENT FROM THE OP-ESDR ANALYSIS. BASED ON THESE RAPIDSCAT RESULTS, WE WILL FINE-TUNE THE GMFS AND POSSIBLY ELEMENTS OF THE RETRIEVAL ALGORITHM. THE NEW L-BAND SCATTEROMETER/RADIOMETER SENSOR COMPLEMENTS ON AQUARIUS AND SMAP IN CONJUNCTION WITH RAPIDSCAT WILL ALLOW US TO DO A VERY DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE VW RETRIEVALS IN RAIN AND HIGH WINDS. THE L-BAND WIND SPEED RETRIEVALS ARE INSENSITIVE TO RAIN AND AT THE SAME TIME THEY ARE RESPONSIVE TO WINDS UP TO 50 M/S. THE NEAR COINCIDENT COLLOCATIONS BETWEEN RAPIDSCAT AND AQUARIUS/SMAP MAY PROVIDE THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION ON THE EFFECT OF RAIN AND HIGH WINDS ON KU-BAND SCATTEROMETERS TO DATE. THESE RESULTS WILL BE FACTORED INTO IMPROVEMENTS TO THE GMFS AND POSSIBLY TO THE VW RETRIEVAL ALGORITHM. ONE CONCERN IS THAT OUR VARIOUS CALIBRATION PROCEDURES AND FINE-TUNING EXERCISES WILL TEND TO DIMINISH OR ALTER THE TRUE DIURNAL VARIABILITY OF OCEAN WINDS. WE WILL ASSESS THIS POTENTIAL PROBLEM BY COMPARING THE DIURNAL VARIATIONS SEEN IN THE COLLECTION OF SCATTEROMETERS WITH THE DIURNAL VARIABILITY THAT WILL BE PROVIDED BY RAPIDSCAT. IF INCONSISTENCIES ARE FOUND, THEN THIS PROBLEM WILL NEED TO BE RESOLVED. ONCE THE ABOVE RESEARCH ELEMENTS ARE COMPLETED AND THE NECESSARY IMPROVEMENTS ARE MADE TO THE GMFS AND RETRIEVAL ALGORITHM, ALL VW DATASETS WILL THEN BE REPROCESSED TO OBTAIN IMPROVED AND MORE CONSISTENT VW RETRIEVALS.