NASA CYGNSS Project: Ocean Microplastic Concentration and Wind Speed Data

Version 1.0 data from the CYGNSS mission launched on 15 December 2016 provides daily gridded maps of ocean microplastic concentration and calibrated satellite measurements. The dataset is produced by the CYGNSS Science Team of the University of Michigan and includes 18 netCDF files with one month of data each. It offers high spatiotemporal resolution for monitoring ocean surface conditions.

Use Cases

• Mapping global ocean microplastic concentration patterns based on the daily gridded data.
• Analyzing ocean surface roughness and wind speed relationships for climate models.
• Detecting land-water transitions and small inland water bodies based on the suite of signal coherence detectors.
• Studying tropical cyclone inner cores using frequent space-based wind speed measurements.

Strengths

• Provides daily data on a 0.25-degree latitude/longitude spatial grid.
• Derived from a constellation of eight micro-satellites offering nearly gap-free Earth coverage with a mean revisit time of seven hours.
• Includes multiple established signal coherence and strength products, such as Delay Doppler Maps (DDMs) with high resolution.

Limitations

• User caution is advised in regions with factors like algal blooms or oil spills that may affect the microplastic estimation method.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

CYGNSS Science Team, University of Michigan; NASA Earth System Science Pathfinder Mission.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the CYGNSS constellation, with data processed into Level 1 and Level 3 products.

Time Range

Data collection began after the mission launch on 15 December 2016; specific temporal coverage for the version 1.0 files is not specified.

Freshness

unknown

Geography

Global coverage, with an orbital inclination of approximately 35° from the equator.