MetOp-C ASCAT: Ocean Surface Wind Vectors at 25km Resolution

EUMETSAT OSI SAF provides near-real-time Level 2 ocean surface wind vector retrievals from the Advanced Scatterometer aboard the MetOp-C satellite. The dataset contains full orbit swaths at a 25 km sampling resolution, with an effective resolution of 50 km, processed using the CMOD7.n geophysical model function. Latency is approximately 2 hours from the latest measurement.

Use Cases

• Forecasting weather and storm systems based on near-real-time ocean wind vectors.
• Modeling ocean-atmosphere interactions based on dual-swath radar scatterometer retrievals.
• Analyzing wind patterns for maritime navigation and safety based on polar orbit satellite coverage.
• Validating and calibrating other wind measurement systems based on CMOD7.n geophysical model function outputs.

Strengths

• Operational near-real-time data with a latency of approximately 2 hours.
• Data processed using the CMOD7.n geophysical model function with a Hamming filter.
• Provided in netCDF version 3 format, a standard for scientific data.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Retrievals from the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) on the MetOp-C satellite, processed from ASCAT L1B data.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:21:15.569026; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global ocean coverage from a sun-synchronous polar orbit.