CYGNSS: Daily Ocean Wind Speed and Wave Slope Data on a 0.2-Degree Grid

NASA's CYGNSS satellite constellation provides a daily climate data record of ocean surface wind speed and mean square slope. The Version 1.0 CDR uses a trackwise correction algorithm to improve calibration accuracy and stability, and includes data from GPS Block IIF satellites previously excluded. A single netCDF-4 file is produced for each day with an approximate 2-month latency.

Use Cases

• Analyzing ocean surface wind patterns based on daily gridded wind speed data.
• Studying wave roughness and sea state based on the mean square slope (MSS) variable.
• Monitoring long-term climate trends using the climate-quality, reanalysis-derived data record.
• Improving weather and ocean model inputs based on satellite-derived wind and wave measurements.

Strengths

• Data is processed with a trackwise correction algorithm, improving calibration accuracy and long-term stability over the previous SDR v2.1.
• Includes samples from GPS Block IIF satellites (~37% of constellation), increasing spatial coverage compared to prior versions.
• Provides daily files on a consistent 0.2x0.2 degree latitude/longitude grid.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The trackwise correction algorithm cannot be applied to all prior data, resulting in some loss of samples present in SDR v2.1.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data derived from the Delay Doppler Mapping Instrument aboard the CYGNSS satellite constellation.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:19:28.746503; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global ocean coverage, determined by specular points of satellite measurements.