Semi-Discrete Wavelet Transforms of Remote Sensing Data Reveal Long-Range Multifractal Correlations in Cloud Structure (original) (raw)

2001

Abstract

Semi-discrete wavelet transforms are discrete in scale, as in Mallat's multi-resolution analysis, but continuous in position. The number of coefficients and algorithmic complexity then grows only as NlogN where N is the number of points (pixels) in the time-series (image). The redundancy of this representation at each scale has been exploited in denoising and data compression applications but we see it here as an asset when cumulating spatial statistics. Following Arnéodo, the wavelets are normalized in such a way that the scaling exponents of the moments of the coefficients are the same as for structure functions at all orders, at least in nonstationary/stationary-increment signals. We apply 1D and 2D semi-discrete transforms to remote sensing data on cloud structure from a variety of sources: NASA's MODerate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on Terra and Thematic Mapper (TM) on LandSat; high-resolution cloud scenes from DOE's Multispectral Thermal Imager (MTI); and an upward-looking mm-radar at one of DOE's climate observation sites supporting the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program. We show that the scale-dependence of the variance of the wavelet coefficients is always a better discriminator of transition from stationary to nonstationary behavior than conventional methods based on auto-correlation analysis, 2nd-order structure function (a.k.a. the semi-variogram), or spectral analysis. Examples of stationary behavior are (delta-correlated) instrumental noise and large-scale decorrelation of cloudiness; here wavelet coefficients decrease with increasing scale. Examples of nonstationary behavior are the predominant turbulent structure of cloud layers as well as instrumental or physical smoothing in the data; here wavelet coefficients increase with scale. In all of these regimes, we have theoretical expectations and/or empirical evidence of power-law relations for wavelet statistics with respect to scale as is expected in physical (finite-scaling) fractal signals. In particular, this implies the presence of long-range correlations in cloud structure coming from the important nonstationary regime. Finally, ramifications of this finding for cloud-radiation interaction are discussed in the context of climate modeling.

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