QuikSCAT: Ocean Surface Wind Vectors at 12.5km Resolution

NASA's QuikSCAT Level 2B dataset provides science-quality ocean surface wind vector retrievals from the SeaWinds scatterometer. The data is processed on a non-uniform swath grid at 12.5 km pixel resolution using a slice composite technique. Version 4.1 includes key improvements for coastal wind retrieval and quality flagging for orbits with significant spacecraft attitude errors.

Use Cases

• Analyzing coastal wind patterns based on retrievals to within 5-10 km of the coast.
• Validating numerical weather prediction models using science-quality wind vector cells.
• Studying long-term wind variability and air-sea fluxes from reprocessed orbital data.
• Identifying data quality issues in specific orbits using flags for pitch error greater than 0.04 degrees.

Strengths

• Represents the latest reprocessed science-quality version (4.1) with documented improvements over prior versions.
• Provides higher resolution wind vectors via a slice composite technique at 12.5 km pixel resolution.
• Includes specific quality control for coastal winds, flagging 150 orbits known to be contaminated by land.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are not provided across any platform.
• Conflicting last updated dates exist between sources (2009 on NASA Earthdata vs. 2026 on Data.gov), creating uncertainty about data currency.
• The dataset's license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.

Provenance

Source

NASA QuikSCAT Project, SeaWinds Processing and Analysis Center (SeaPAC).

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the QuikSCAT scatterometer, with Level 2B processing from L1B backscatter data.

Freshness

2026-04-09 23:11:05.841281 (from Data.gov, though conflicting with NASA Earthdata date)

Geography

Global ocean surface, with specific coverage within satellite swaths.