Scientific Requirements Consolidation

User Requirements

The Ocean surface (vector) wind is an important parameter for the meteorological, oceanographic, surface wave and climate communities. These surface winds have applications in the description of the ocean surface processes and various air-sea interactions, as well as direct applications for end-users of which perhaps the condition of the sea state is the most known and compelling one.

Scientific users and end-users of express requirements on ocean surface wind products in relation to the nature and the state-of-the-art of their application. For the different applications the requirements on (observational) ocean surface wind products are expressed in various characteristics, such as resolution, accuracy, coverage, timeliness etc. For a particular application, requirements on some characteristics can be relaxed, while on other the requirements have to be stringent for the product to be of use.

Over the years, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), for example, has complied many of the expressed user requirements for the main and main clusters of applications. These can e.g. be found in the OSCAR database.

Science Requirements

In this project we are concerned with the development of a new particular method of observation of ocean surface winds from a specific new instrument, the Aladin LIDAR on Aeolus (cf. ADM-Aeolus). The objectives are to demonstrate that the new retrieval method can work, and to understand which conditions are favorable for these retrievals and which conditions not, if not prohibitive.

A priori, that is, at the start of the project, the knowledge of the user requirements influences the analyses and experiments of the project as the project targets to develop a useful ocean wind product. These project analyses will lead to expression and testing of science requirements on the method. These science requirements must ensure that particular user requirements can be met.

A posteriori, that is, near the end of the project, these science requirements will be consolidated by the assessments and user feedback in terms of which and how good user requirements can be met and which requirements can potentially be (better) met after further R&D. This will be discussed in the Scientific Roadmap which and in all will conclude on the usefulness and maturity of the method and product.

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