Coastal Ocean Surface Wind Vectors from MetOp-C ASCAT Satellite

Operational near-real-time ocean surface wind vector retrievals are optimized for coastal regions, allowing wind computation as close as 15 km from shore. Data is produced by the EUMETSAT Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility and provided through the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. Each file contains one full orbit derived from 3-minute orbit granules with a latency of approximately 2 hours from the latest measurement.

Use Cases

• Model coastal storm surge and wave height by analyzing wind vector cells near shorelines.
• Validate numerical weather prediction model outputs using the 12.5 km sampling resolution wind vector retrievals.
• Study coastal wind phenomena like sea breezes using the spatially averaged Sigma-0 retrievals within a 15 km radius of each cell centroid.
• Monitor near-real-time offshore wind conditions for maritime safety using data with a 2-hour latency from measurement.

Strengths

• Wind vectors can be computed as close as ~15 km from the coast due to enhanced coastal retrieval.
• Data has a near-real-time latency of approximately 2 hours from the latest measurement.
• Utilizes the CMOD7.n geophysical model function, consistent with standard operational wind vector products.

Limitations

• The effective spatial resolution is 25 km, coarser than the 12.5 km sampling resolution.
• Non-sea Sigma-0 retrievals are discarded, which may limit utility for land-coast transition studies.
• Specific row counts, file sizes, and complete temporal coverage are not provided in the description.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Derived from Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) C-band radar backscatter (Sigma-0) retrievals on the MetOp-C satellite, processed using a spatial box filter and the CMOD7.n geophysical model.

Freshness

Near-real-time with approximately 2-hour latency.

Geography

Global, with optimized coverage for coastal ocean regions.