A new sea surface wind speed product derived from re-calibrated FengYun-3 MWRI data

Sea surface wind speed (SWS) is critical for climate change monitoring, sea-atmosphere interaction studies and wind energy development. The Microwave Radiation Imager (MWRI) onboard the Chinese Fengyun-3 (FY-3) satellites provides an essential tool for SWS estimation, bridging the data gap between the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2). With the recent re-calibration of MWRI brightness temperature (TB), this study generates a new SWS product covering the period from November 2010 to May 2022, based on the D-Matrix algorithm which is a statistical method about the multi-linear regression relationship between TB and in-situ SWS measurements from a variety of National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) buoys. The newly generated SWS product was validated against buoy measurements and compared with the original operational product. Validation results demonstrate an overall good accuracy, with the root-mean-square error (RMSE) values of 1.75 m/s (FY-3B), 1.73 m/s (FY-3C), and 1.58 m/s (FY-3D). Cross-comparisons with AMSR2 and ERA5 SWS data yield RMSE values between 1.86 and 2.86 m/s. The enhanced accuracy and consistency of this new SWS product helps to generate a long-term, consistent SWS record which could certainly benefit its applications in weather forecasting and climate analysis.