COWVR STP-H8: ISS Microwave Brightness Temperatures from 2022

COWVR STP-H8 Version 10.0 provides calibrated brightness temperatures from three microwave frequencies aboard the International Space Station. Data files in HDF5 format are available at roughly hourly intervals from January 2022, with a planned mission end in December 2024. The sensor was developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and flown by the United States Space Force.

Use Cases

• Validate ocean surface wind vector models based on fully polarimetric microwave radiometer measurements.
• Analyze temporal patterns of microwave brightness temperatures based on the ~90-minute ISS orbit cycle.
• Compare sensor performance with other radiometers (e.g., WindSat) based on the lower-cost architecture demonstration.
• Study non-sun-synchronous Earth observations based on the ISS platform's orbital characteristics.

Strengths

• Version 10.0 is the first public release, indicating a mature internal development process.
• Spatial resolution is less than 35 km with a swath width of 1012 km.
• Data includes calibration and flag information alongside the derived brightness temperatures.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The description states the product is best suited for cal/val users or sensor experts, suggesting it may not be optimized for general scientific analysis.

Provenance

Source

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, United States Space Force, Space Systems Command.

Collection Method

Satellite-based observations from the COWVR sensor aboard the International Space Station.

Time Range

January 2022 to December 2024.

Freshness

Data is forward-streaming from January 2022 to December 2024; metadata was last updated on 2026-03-13.

Geography

Global coverage from ISS orbit, non-sun-synchronous.