Improving the Reliability of Coastal Wind Statistics Using Synthetic Aperture Radar

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K04856
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 24020:Marine engineering-related
• Research Institution: Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Takeyama Yuko 東京海洋大学, 学術研究院, 准教授 (00510025)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 合成開口レーダ / Sentinel-1 / 洋上風況把握

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, the accuracy of wind speed estimation in coastal areas of Japan using a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) onboard Sentinel-1 was clarified, and a comparison of multiple methods was conducted for identifying suitable wind direction for the wind speed retrieval.
The results show that smoothing at 500 m is effective in reducing the effects of speckle noise in SAR images, artificial structures and breaking waves that are common in coastal areas. The results also showed the effectiveness of the wind direction information from the Sentinel-1 OCN product. It means that we can retrieve wind speeds from SAR images without wind direction information from external sources.

Free Research Field

海洋気象学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

カーボンニュートラルな社会を目指す我が国において，洋上風力発電の普及は切り札として位置づけられている．しかし，発電量に直結する重要な風況情報を洋上で正確に計測することは容易ではない．長期間継続した風況情報を正確に計測する手法の1つとして，人工衛星の活用には期待が大きい．
本研究はマイクロ波を能動的に用いて海上風を計測できる合成開口レーダを用いて，日本沿岸における風速推定精度を示すとともに風況統計で一般的に用いられるワイブル分布における近似がどのくらい一致するかを明らかにし，合成開口レーダの利用可能性を示したものである．