Weekly Ocean Winds Vapor Cloud And Rain Satellite Grids

20 years of algorithm development underpin this dataset of weekly averaged ocean surface parameters retrieved from the DMSP F17 satellite's SSMIS sensor. The collection provides intercalibrated time series data for wind speed, water vapor, cloud water, and rain rate over the global ocean. It is produced by Remote Sensing Systems as part of NASA's MEaSUREs Program and reformatted into netCDF by the Global Hydrology Resource Center.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term trends in ocean surface wind speed patterns.
• Validating climate and weather models using global water vapor and cloud water measurements.
• Studying the relationship between rain rate and other oceanic atmospheric variables.
• Investigating spatial and temporal variability of key surface parameters over the global ocean.

Strengths

• Data is based on a unified retrieval algorithm refined over a 20-year period.
• SSMIS data is intercalibrated with previous SSM/I sensors to ensure time series continuity.
• Dataset is part of NASA's MEaSUREs Program, indicating a high level of curation.

Limitations

• Specific row count, file size, and precise column names are not provided by any source.
• License is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' on Data.gov, with no details on NASA Earthdata.

Provenance

Source

Remote Sensing Systems / NASA MEaSUREs Program

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing data from the DMSP F17 SSMIS sensor, processed with a unified physical algorithm and reformatted into netCDF.

Freshness

2026-03-12 21:53:03.126458

Geography

Global ocean