• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.536-555
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• 2021

Sea-surface wind is an important variable in ocean-atmosphere interactions, leading to the changes in ocean surface currents and circulation, mixed layers, and heat flux. With the development of satellite technology, sea-surface winds data retrieved from scatterometer observation data have been used for various purposes. In a complex marine environment such as the Korean Peninsula coast, scatterometer-observed sea-surface wind is an important factor for analyzing ocean and atmospheric phenomena. Therefore, the validation results of wind accuracy can be used for diverse applications. In this study, the sea-surface winds derived from ASCAT (Advanced SCATterometer) mounted on MetOp-A/B (METeorological Operational Satellite-A/B) were validated compared to in-situ wind measurements at 16 marine buoy stations around the Korean Peninsula from January to December 2020. The buoy winds measured at a height of 4-5 m from the sea surface were converted to 10-m neutral winds using the LKB (Liu-Katsaros-Businger) model. The matchup procedure produced 5,544 and 10,051 collocation points for MetOp-A and MetOp-B, respectively. The root mean square errors (RMSE) were 1.36 and 1.28 m s^-1, and bias errors amounted to 0.44 and 0.65 m s^-1 for MetOp-A and MetOp-B, respectively. The wind directions of both scatterometers exhibited negative biases of -8.03° and -6.97° and RMSE values of 32.46° and 36.06° for MetOp-A and MetOp-B, respectively. These errors were likely associated with the stratification and dynamics of the marine-atmospheric boundary layer. In the seas around the Korean Peninsula, the sea-surface winds of the ASCAT tended to be more overestimated than the in-situ wind speeds, particularly at weak wind speeds. In addition, the closer the distance from the coast, the more the amplification of error. The present results could contribute to the development of a prediction model as improved input data and the understanding of air-sea interaction and impact of typhoons in the coastal regions around the Korean Peninsula.