DMSP F11 Satellite Ocean Wind, Vapor, Cloud, and Rain Grids

NASA's MEaSUREs Program provides daily gridded ocean surface data from the DMSP F11 satellite's Special Sensor Microwave/Imager. Remote Sensing Systems uses a unified, physically based algorithm refined over 20 years to simultaneously retrieve wind speed, water vapor, cloud water, and rain rate. The Global Hydrology Resource Center reformats the original binary data into netCDF files for accessibility.

Use Cases

• Analyzing ocean surface wind patterns for meteorological and climate studies.
• Tracking global atmospheric water vapor content and its distribution.
• Studying cloud liquid water and its role in Earth's radiation budget.
• Estimating precipitation rates over oceans for hydrological cycle research.
• Extending a calibrated multi-satellite time series for long-term trend analysis.

Strengths

• Data products result from a unified retrieval algorithm refined and verified over a 20-year development period.
• SSMIS data are intercalibrated to previous SSM/I brightness temperatures, ensuring consistency for long-term time series analysis.

Limitations

• Critical metadata conflicts exist: the 'last updated' date differs significantly between Data.gov (2026-03-12) and NASA Earthdata (2000-05 16).
• Specific dataset dimensions (row count, file size) and detailed column names are not provided by any source.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Remote Sensing Systems (RSS).

Collection Method

Satellite microwave remote sensing via the DMSP F11 Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I), with data processed using a unified physical algorithm.

Time Range

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Freshness

2026-03-12 21:54:38.733058

Geography

Global ocean coverage.