Next Article in Journal
Angle-Controllable SAR Image Generation for Target Recognition with Few Samples
Previous Article in Journal
Towards High-Resolution Population Mapping: Leveraging Open Data, Remote Sensing, and AI for Geospatial Analysis in Developing Country Cities—A Case Study of Bangkok
 
 
Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
Journals
Remote Sensing
Volume 17
Issue 7
10.3390/rs17071205
remotesensing-logo
Submit to this Journal Review for this Journal Propose a Special Issue
► Article Menu

Article Menu

share Share announcement Help format_quote Cite question_answer Discuss in SciProfiles
first_page
settings
Order Article Reprints
Font Type:
Arial Georgia Verdana
Font Size:
Aa Aa Aa
Line Spacing:
Column Width:
Background:
Article

AIRWAVE-SLSTR—An Algorithm to Estimate the Total Column of Water Vapour from SLSTR Measurements over Liquid Surfaces

by
Elisa Castelli
1,*,
Stefano Casadio
2,
Enzo Papandrea
1,
Paolo Pettinari
1,
Massimo Valeri
2,
Andrè Achilli
1,3,
Bojan R. Bojkov
4,
Alessio Di Roma
1,
Camilla Perfetti
1,3 and
Bianca Maria Dinelli
1
1
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto di Scienze dell’Atmosfera e del Clima (CNR-ISAC), Via Gobetti, 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
2
Serco Italia S.p.A., Via Bernardino Alimena, 111-119, 00173 Rome, Italy
3
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia (DIFA), University of Bologna, Viale Carlo Berti Pichat, 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
4
European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), Eumetsat-Allee 1, 64295 Darmstadt, Germany
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Remote Sens. 2025, 17(7), 1205; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17071205
Submission received: 27 January 2025 / Revised: 7 March 2025 / Accepted: 11 March 2025 / Published: 28 March 2025
Browse Figures
Versions Notes

Abstract

In the past, the possibility to retrieve the total column of water vapour (TCWV) from the thermal infrared (TIR) day and night measurements above water surfaces of the dual-view Along Track Scanning Radiometers (ATSR) has been demonstrated, and an algorithm, named Advanced InfrarRed Water Vapour Estimator (AIRWAVE), was developed and successfully applied to the measurements of the (A)ATSR instrument series. A similar instrument, the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR), is currently operating on board the Sentinel 3 satellite series. In this paper, we demonstrate that the AIRWAVE algorithm can be successfully applied to the SLSTR instrument to obtain reliable TCWV measurements. The steps performed for upgrading the algorithm are thoroughly described. The new AIRWAVE algorithm makes use of parameters computed offline with a state-of-the-art radiative transfer model using the most recent spectroscopic data and continuum model. For the parameters calculation, a new climatology capable of representing the average atmospheric and sea surface status during SLSTR measurements has been developed. The new algorithm, named AIRWAVE-SLSTR, has been implemented in both IDL and Python languages. In the frame of an EUMETSAT contract, AIRWAVE-SLSTR has been applied to a full year of SLSTR measurements (2021) and the retrieved TCWV have been validated with the help of both satellite- and ground-based measurements. The correlation of the retrieved TCWV with satellite MW measurements is 0.94 and the average bias is of the order of 0.66 kg/m⁢2. When compared to ground-based measurements, the average correlation is 0.93 and the bias −0.48 kg/m⁢2. The obtained accuracy is well within the requirements set for both numerical weather predictions (1–5 kg/m⁢2) and for coastal altimetry applications (1.8–3 kg/m⁢2). Therefore, the AIRWAVE-SLSTR algorithm can be safely applied to obtain a long time series of reliable TCWV above water surfaces.
Keywords: total column of water vapour; Sentinel 3; SLSTR total column of water vapour; Sentinel 3; SLSTR

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Castelli, E.; Casadio, S.; Papandrea, E.; Pettinari, P.; Valeri, M.; Achilli, A.; Bojkov, B.R.; Di Roma, A.; Perfetti, C.; Dinelli, B.M. AIRWAVE-SLSTR—An Algorithm to Estimate the Total Column of Water Vapour from SLSTR Measurements over Liquid Surfaces. Remote Sens. 2025, 17, 1205. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17071205

AMA Style

Castelli E, Casadio S, Papandrea E, Pettinari P, Valeri M, Achilli A, Bojkov BR, Di Roma A, Perfetti C, Dinelli BM. AIRWAVE-SLSTR—An Algorithm to Estimate the Total Column of Water Vapour from SLSTR Measurements over Liquid Surfaces. Remote Sensing. 2025; 17(7):1205. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17071205

Chicago/Turabian Style

Castelli, Elisa, Stefano Casadio, Enzo Papandrea, Paolo Pettinari, Massimo Valeri, Andrè Achilli, Bojan R. Bojkov, Alessio Di Roma, Camilla Perfetti, and Bianca Maria Dinelli. 2025. "AIRWAVE-SLSTR—An Algorithm to Estimate the Total Column of Water Vapour from SLSTR Measurements over Liquid Surfaces" Remote Sensing 17, no. 7: 1205. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17071205

APA Style

Castelli, E., Casadio, S., Papandrea, E., Pettinari, P., Valeri, M., Achilli, A., Bojkov, B. R., Di Roma, A., Perfetti, C., & Dinelli, B. M. (2025). AIRWAVE-SLSTR—An Algorithm to Estimate the Total Column of Water Vapour from SLSTR Measurements over Liquid Surfaces. Remote Sensing, 17(7), 1205. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17071205

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Back to TopTop