Supplementary data for: Comparison of optical flow derivation techniques for retrieving tropospheric winds from satellite image sequences

This study introduces a validation technique for quantitative comparison of algorithms which retrieve winds from passive detection of cloud- and water vapor-drift motions, also known as Atmospheric Motion Vectors (AMVs).  The technique leverages airborne wind-profiling lidar data collected in tandem with 1-min refresh rate geostationary satellite imagery.  AMVs derived with different approaches are used with accompanying numerical weather prediction model data to estimate the full profiles of lidar-sampled winds which enables ranking of feature tracking, quality control, and height-assignment accuracy and encourages meso-scale, multi-layer, multi-band wind retrieval solutions.  The technique is used to compare the performance of two brightness motion, or “optical flow,” retrieval algorithms used within AMVs, 1) Patch Matching (PM; used within operational AMVs) and 2) an advanced Variational Optical Flow (VOF) method enabled for most atmospheric motions by new-generation imagers.  The VO...