Toward an improved ambiguity removal for ASCAT-derived winds

The current ASCAT Wind Data Processor (AWDP) uses the 2D variational ambiguity removal (2DVAR) scheme to select a unique wind field from a set of retrieved ambiguities. This has led to spatially consistent and accurate ASCAT Level 2 wind products. Nevertheless, recent research shows that 2DVAR picks up the wrong wind direction ambiguities in regions where the background field shows mislocation of fronts (convergence) or misses convective systems. In this paper, the exploitation of complementary information derived from the inversion and from an image processing technique is proposed to improve the current 2DVAR for ASCAT in mesoscale conditions.