ISS-RapidScat: Climate-Quality Ocean Wind Vectors in 12.5km Grid

ISS-RapidScat provides ocean surface wind vectors from a Ku-band scatterometer mounted on the International Space Station, offering a non-sun-synchronous orbit with coverage from 61°N to 61°S. Its Version 2.0 data incorporates an SST-dependent Geophysical Model Function to correct cold-ocean speed biases and includes new flags identifying approximately 3% likely corrupted and 15% possibly corrupted retrievals. The dataset delivers binned wind vectors on a 12.5 km grid, processed from full-aperture radar cross-section measurements.

Use Cases

• Climate trend analysis based on climate-quality wind vectors over tropical and mid-latitude oceans.
• Numerical weather prediction model assimilation using the binned 12.5 km Wind Vector Cell data.
• Studying wind variability near coasts, ice, or rain using the wind_retrieval_possibly_corrupted_flag.
• Correcting historical Ku-band scatterometer biases over cold ocean using the SST-dependent GMF.
• Comparative studies with QuikSCAT, analyzing differences due to orbit and altitude.

Strengths

• Includes explicit quality flags identifying approximately 3% of data as likely corrupted and 15% as possibly corrupted.
• Version 2.0 corrects persistent speed biases in cold oceans using an SST-dependent Geophysical Model Function.
• Data is hosted on multiple authoritative platforms (NASA Earthdata, Data.gov), indicating validation and importance.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low: column names, row counts, and file sizes are unknown across all sources.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist (2016-08-19 vs. 2026-04-09), creating uncertainty about data maintenance.
• Spatial coverage is restricted to latitudes between approximately 61 degrees North and South, excluding polar regions.

Provenance

Source

NASA ISS-RapidScat mission, processed by POCLOUD (as listed on NASA Earthdata).

Collection Method

Satellite scatterometer measurements binned on a 12.5 km Wind Vector Cell grid.

Time Range

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Freshness

2026-04-09 23:02:16.890726 (most recent date cited, though potentially a placeholder)

Geography

Global ocean coverage from approximately 61 degrees North to 61 degrees South.