MetOp-A ASCAT Coastal Ocean Winds at 12.5 km Resolution

Operational near-real-time Level 2 coastal ocean surface wind vector retrievals from the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) on the MetOp-A satellite. The dataset is produced by the EUMETSAT Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility via KNMI, with a latency of approximately 2 hours from measurement. It uses a spatial box filter averaging Sigma-0 retrievals within a 15 km radius to compute winds as close as ~15 km from the coast.

Use Cases

• Model coastal wind fields for weather forecasting based on near-real-time satellite retrievals.
• Analyze ocean surface wind variability near coastlines based on the enhanced 15 km coastal retrieval.
• Validate numerical weather prediction models using operational wind vector data from a polar-orbiting satellite.

Strengths

• Latency is approximately 2 hours from the latest measurement, supporting near-real-time applications.
• Enhanced coastal retrieval allows wind computation as close as ~15 km from the coast, compared to a standard ~35 km land mask.
• Utilizes the CMOD7.n geophysical model function consistent with standard OSI SAF ASCAT datasets.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The effective resolution is 25 km despite a 12.5 km sampling resolution.

Provenance

Source

European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI SAF) provided through the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI).

Collection Method

Derived from Level 1B Sigma-0 retrievals from the ASCAT C-band dual fan beam radar scatterometer on the MetOp-A satellite.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:47:16.379009; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global ocean coverage, with optimized focus on coastal regions.