NASA NSCAT Project: Ocean Wind Vectors and Backscatter from Satellite Scatterometer

NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) data provides daily ocean wind vectors and backscatter (sigma-0) measurements from ascending and descending satellite passes. Wind vectors are reported with an accuracy within 2 m/s for speed and 20 degrees for direction. The final calibration and validation for this version was completed in November 1998 by the JPL NSCAT Project.

Use Cases

• Validating and improving numerical weather prediction models based on satellite-derived wind vector data.
• Studying ocean-atmosphere coupling and wind patterns using the 25 km resolution wind vector cells.
• Comparing wind solution ambiguity removal methods, such as the 2-D variational analysis method described.
• Analyzing long-term ocean wind climatology from a calibrated satellite mission.

Strengths

• Wind vector accuracy is quantified as within 2 m/s for speed and 20 degrees for direction.
• Data represents the final processed version from a completed calibration and validation phase.
• Includes multiple data products: high-resolution wind vectors, merged wind and sigma-0, and backscatter-only data.

Limitations

• Wind vectors are not considered valid in rain-contaminated regions, and rain flagging information is not provided.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

NASA/JPL NSCAT Project

Collection Method

Satellite scatterometer measurements processed using the NSCAT-2 geophysical model function.

Time Range

Daily data from the NSCAT mission period (likely 1996-1997).

Freshness

Data processing was finalized in November 1998; last update date for the hosted files is unknown.

Geography

Global ocean coverage from satellite swaths.