MetOp-A ASCAT Coastal Ocean Surface Wind Vectors at 12.5 km and 25 km Grids

A historically reprocessed Level 2 climate data record provides coastal ocean surface wind vectors from the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) on the MetOp-A satellite. The dataset includes versions sampled on 12.5 km and 25 km grids, with the coastal product retrieving winds as close as approximately 15 km from the coast. It is a product of EUMETSAT's Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI SAF) provided via the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI).

Use Cases

• Analyzing coastal wind variability and trends based on the historically reprocessed climate data record.
• Validating operational weather and ocean circulation models using the spatially averaged wind vector retrievals.
• Studying the impact of spatial resolution on wind data quality by comparing the 12.5 km and 25 km grid products.
• Investigating near-coastal atmospheric processes enabled by the enhanced retrieval capability close to shore.

Strengths

• Includes the first historically reprocessed coastal wind vector climate data record from ASCAT MetOp-A.
• Provides two spatial resolutions: a 12.5 km grid for coastal detail and a less noisy 25 km grid.
• Coastal retrieval algorithm allows wind computation approximately 15 km from the coast.
• Data is provided in a standard netCDF format per complete satellite orbit.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and total dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The 25 km product contains less geophysical information on small scales and near coasts compared to the 12.5 km product.

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

Satellite remote sensing data from the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) on the MetOp-A platform, reprocessed using the CMOD7 geophysical model function.

Time Range

Historical coverage, but specific start and end dates are not provided in the input.

Freshness

Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Geography

Global coastal and ocean coverage from a sun-synchronous polar orbit.