QuikSCAT: Inter-Calibrated Ocean Surface Wind Vectors and Stress

QuikSCAT Scatterometer Inter-Calibrated ESDR Level 3 data provides gridded ocean surface wind vectors and wind stress vectors at a 12.5 km pixel resolution. This dataset represents the first science-quality release under NASA's MEaSUREs program and is intercalibrated with measurements from MetOp-A, MetOp-B, and ScatSat-1 satellites. Its primary purpose is for science evaluation by the NASA International Ocean Vector Winds Science Team.

Use Cases

• Evaluating intercalibration methods for scatterometer wind retrievals across multiple satellite platforms.
• Analyzing global patterns of ocean surface wind stress for climate and weather modeling.
• Validating numerical weather prediction models using high-resolution (12.5 km) satellite-derived wind vectors.
• Studying air-sea momentum transfer processes using equivalent neutral and true 10m wind data.

Strengths

• Data is intercalibrated with three other major scatterometer platforms (MetOp-A, MetOp-B, ScatSat-1), enhancing cross-mission consistency.
• Provides high-resolution (12.5 km) global gridded wind vectors and stress, representing a first science-quality release under the NASA MEaSUREs program.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low: column names, row counts, and exact file sizes are unknown across all platforms.
• There is a significant conflict in the 'last updated' date between sources (2009 vs. 2026), casting doubt on data maintenance and freshness.
• Data coverage is not global for any single day, as it is limited to areas within the satellite's swath for that orbit.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Derived from satellite-based scatterometer observations aboard the QuikSCAT platform.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated date is conflicting: 2009-11-24 (nasa_earthdata) vs. 2026-04-09 (datagov).

Geography

Global, but data exists only within daily satellite swaths.