NASA S-MODE Project: Airborne Ocean Surface Winds and Currents

NASA's S-MODE Project dataset contains concurrent airborne DopplerScatt radar retrievals of surface vector winds and ocean currents. Data were collected approximately 300 km offshore of San Francisco during a pilot campaign in October 2021 and two intensive operating periods in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023. The Level 2 data includes cross-calibrated estimates of surface winds and currents.

Use Cases

• Modeling sub-mesoscale ocean dynamics based on concurrent wind and current measurements.
• Validating in-situ oceanographic instruments based on cross-calibration with ADCPs and drifters mentioned in the description.
• Analyzing vertical exchange processes in the ocean based on short spatial scale dynamics data.
• Studying air-sea interaction patterns based on surface vector wind retrievals.

Strengths

• Data is cross-calibrated against ADCPs, surface drifters, and the SIO-DopVis instrument.
• Covers multiple collection periods: a pilot campaign and two intensive operating periods.
• Provides concurrent retrievals of both surface winds and ocean currents.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The V2 Level 2 data is described as provisional and subject to reprocessing.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

NASA Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE)

Collection Method

Airborne DopplerScatt radar retrievals from a B200 aircraft, combined with in-situ drifter data.

Time Range

October 2021, Fall 2022, Spring 2023

Freshness

Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Geography

Approximately 300 km offshore of San Francisco, Pacific Ocean