CYGNSS: Ocean Wind Speed and Surface Slope Satellite Data

Version 1.0 CYGNSS Level 2 Climate Data Record provides daily average wind speed and mean square slope measurements at 25x25 kilometer resolution from up to 8 spacecraft. The dataset is produced by NASA with improved calibration and stability using a trackwise correction algorithm that incorporates MERRA-2 reanalysis wind speeds. Data files are released with a latency of approximately 2 months from the last measurement.

Use Cases

• Modeling ocean-atmosphere interactions based on wind speed and heat flux data
• Analyzing long-term climate trends based on the climate-quality reanalysis record
• Improving satellite data calibration algorithms based on the trackwise correction methodology
• Studying ocean surface roughness based on mean square slope measurements

Strengths

• 25x25 kilometer spatial resolution for wind speed and surface slope
• Includes data from Block IIF GPS satellites, increasing sample count and spatial coverage
• Daily netCDF files with data from up to 8 CYGNSS spacecraft

Limitations

• Data latency of approximately 2 months may limit real-time applications
• Some samples from the previous SDR v2.1 version were lost during the trackwise correction process
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Derived from Delay Doppler Mapping Instrument aboard the CYGNSS satellite constellation.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:19:39.129968; freshness should be verified

Geography

Global ocean coverage determined by specular points of satellite measurements.