edu.ucar.opensky::articles:6055 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-26T15:54:15.559342 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d71j99x6 Application of dynamical error estimation for statistical optimization of radio occultation bending angles 2005-06-08T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d71j99x6 https://doi.org/10.1029/2004RS003117 Lohmann, Martin S. author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher Errors in stratospheric bending angles retrieved from GPS radio occultations can be significantly reduced by using statistical optimization. In order for this technique to work optimally, the error covariance of the observations and the error covariance of the first guess must be known. This is generally not the case, and it is therefore common practice to assume that each of these errors is uncorrelated. In this study, it is shown that when this assumption is applied together with dynamical error estimation, it is important to account for the fact that first guess and the observation bending angle errors are not damped equally when refractivity profiles are computed through the Abel transform. It is demonstrated that this difference in damping can be accounted for by scaling the ratio of observation to first-guess bending angle error variances. It is shown that the scaling factor can be related to the ratio between the error correlation lengths of the observation errors and the first-guess errors. We present a simple procedure where both correlation lengths and variances are estimated dynamically and are scaled as described above. It is found that the relative errors can be reduced by up to 30% when compared to a standard statistical optimization scheme where the relative error in the first-guess bending angle profile is assumed to be 20%. However, it was also found that if the first guess is properly adjusted, the need for corrections is greatly reduced. UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication An edited version of this paper was published by AGU. Copyright 2005 American Geophysical Union. None eng geoscientificInformation