CYGNSS Satellite Constellation Ocean Wind Speed and Surface Roughness Data

CYGNSS Level 2 Science Data Record Version 3.0 provides average wind speed and mean square slope measurements with 25-kilometer resolution from a constellation of eight satellites. NASA's CYGNSS mission produces one netCDF file daily with data latency of approximately six days. This version supersedes Version 2.1 with updated calibration and wind retrieval models.

Use Cases

• Predicting hurricane intensity by analyzing wind speed and mean square slope data near cyclonic storms.
• Modeling ocean surface roughness for wave forecasting using the mean square slope feature.
• Calibrating atmospheric reanalysis models like MERRA-2 with satellite-derived wind speed observations.
• Studying wind patterns in young seas with limited fetch conditions using the YSLF Geophysical Model Function.
• Tracking daily global wind speed variations from the time-tagged and geolocated records produced by eight spacecraft.

Strengths

• Data has 25-kilometer spatial resolution for wind and surface roughness measurements.
• Version 3.0 incorporates improved calibration allowing use of GPS Block II-F satellite signals.
• Daily files consolidate measurements from up to eight unique CYGNSS spacecraft.

Limitations

• Specific row count, total size, and exact temporal coverage are not provided.
• Wind speed retrieval depends on model functions (FDS and YSLF GMFs) derived from other atmospheric analyses.
• Data is produced with a latency of approximately six days, not real-time.

Provenance

Source

NASA CYGNSS mission constellation.

Collection Method

Derived from Delay Doppler Mapping Instrument measurements processed into Level 2 Science Data Records.

Freshness

Approximately 6-day latency from last measurement; one file produced daily.

Geography

Global ocean coverage from satellite specular points.