NSCAT: Daily High-Resolution Ocean Wind Vectors from NASA

NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) Level 2.5 high-resolution data provides daily ocean wind vector swaths at a 25 km wind vector cell resolution. Wind vectors are accurate to within 2 m/s in speed and 20 degrees in direction, processed using the NSCAT-2 geophysical model function. The data is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling ocean-atmosphere interactions based on daily wind vector swaths.
• Validating numerical weather prediction models based on wind speed and direction accuracy metrics.
• Studying wind patterns over open oceans based on 25 km resolution wind vector cell data.
• Flagging invalid wind measurements in rain-contaminated or ice-covered regions based on the described processing flags.

Strengths

• Wind vectors have quantified accuracy: within 2 m/s for speed and 20 degrees for direction.
• Data provides daily coverage from both ascending and descending satellite passes.
• Processing uses a defined geophysical model function (NSCAT-2).

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite measurements from the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT), processed to Level 2.5.

Time Range

Daily data from ascending and descending passes; specific date range is not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:08:35.944463; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global ocean coverage, with wind values set to zero in the presence of land or sea ice.