Evaluation of temporal stability in atmospheric temperature observations from FengYun-3D satellite for climate change research

doi:10.12006/j.issn.1673-1719.2025.083

Abstract

Abstract:

Since the launch of China’s Fengyun-3 meteorological satellite in 2008, its microwave radiometer temperature observation data has been widely used in numerical weather forecasting and disaster monitoring, but its application in the climate change research remains notably insufficient. In particular, its stability has not been quantitatively evaluated, which is crucial for climate change studies. To fill this gap, in accordance with the basic climate variable observation requirements defined by the Global Climate Observing Systems (GCOS), the stability for Fengyun-3D/MWTS-II operational temperature observations has been quantitatively evaluated through anomaly and difference trend analysis, taking the homogenized temperature climate dataset from NOAA satellites as a reference. During the evaluation, the effects of diurnal sampling errors (i.e., diurnal drift) caused by orbital drift on temperature observations in different global regions (ocean and land) and across different channels were considered. The following conclusions were drawn: (1) For the mid-tropospheric channel 4 over the ocean, upper tropospheric channel 6, and lower stratospheric channel 9, the effects of diurnal drift are minimal, and their stability meets the requirements for climate change research. The temperature trend of channel 4 over land is largely influenced by diurnal drift errors. (2) The upper tropospheric channel 7 and lower stratospheric channel 8 exhibit small diurnal drift effects but have significant calibration drift errors. (3) The temperatures from the stratospheric mid-to-upper layers (channels 10-13) are all affected by diurnal drift errors, making it difficult to determine if there is a calibration drift error. Therefore, diurnal drift errors need to be corrected before stability evaluation. The stability evaluation aids in the selection of high-confidence satellite observations for climate change research, provides key evidence for correcting diurnal drift and calibration drift errors, and lays a scientific foundation for constructing a homogenized temperature climate dataset from Fengyun satellites. This study will advance the application of Fengyun-3D observations in climate change research.

Key words: Fengyun-3D, Atmospheric temperature, Stability, Evaluation, Climate change

GUO Yan-Jun, ZOU Cheng-Zhi. Evaluation of temporal stability in atmospheric temperature observations from FengYun-3D satellite for climate change research[J]. Climate Change Research, 2025, 21(6): 733-741.

Figures/Tables 5

Table 1 Comparison of microwave temperature sounding channels between FY-3D and NOAA, and the temporal stability requirements for climate change

Fig. 1 Monthly mean Ascending Local Equator Crossing Time (LECT) for the FY-3D and FY-3E satellites from 2019 to 2024, along with the FY-3D LECT differences relative to its January 2019

Fig. 2 Trends of mean-layer temperature anomalies during 2019-2024 for the 9 channels analyzed in this study, averaged over the globe, ocean, and land for NOAA (a), FY-3D (b), and their differences (c). (The bars represent trends with error bars superimposed on them. The trend uncertainty represents 95% confidence intervals with autocorrelation adjustments, which account for time length limitations and temporal variability. The black dashed lines in (c) represent the stability thresholds for the 9 channels)

Fig. 3 Monthly temperature anomaly time series from 2019 to 2024 for FY-3D and NOAA, and their differences, averaged over the ocean (a) and land (b). (Anomalies are calculated as departures from the 2019-2024 base period. The labels in each panel from left to right represent linear trend and uncertainty, standard deviation, and correlation coefficient, respectively. Blue represents NOAA, red represents FY-3D, and black represents their difference or correlation)

Fig. 4 Spatial distribution of temperature RMSE between FY-3D channel 4 and NOAA channel 6 during 2019-2024

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