S-MODE DopplerScatt: Airborne Radar Winds and Currents

Offshore of San Francisco, this dataset contains Level 1 airborne radar retrievals of ocean surface vector winds and currents from the Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) pilot campaign in October 2021. The data originates from a Ka-band DopplerScatt scatterometer mounted on a B200 aircraft, providing geolocated physical measurements for each radar footprint. It is used to give larger-scale context for in-situ measurements and to study the influence of short-scale ocean dynamics on vertical exchange.

Use Cases

• Validating in-situ measurements of ocean velocities and divergence based on concurrent airborne radar data.
• Studying sub-mesoscale ocean dynamics influencing vertical exchange of physical and biological variables.
• Providing larger-scale context for field campaigns based on daily aircraft survey data.
• Analyzing surface vector wind and ocean current retrievals derived from Doppler and backscatter measurements.

Strengths

• Data is from a focused, two-week pilot campaign providing a coherent snapshot of ocean conditions.
• Provides concurrent retrievals of both surface winds and ocean currents from a single instrument.
• The Ka-band scatterometer has a defined swath width of 24 km and operates from a specified B200 aircraft platform.

Limitations

• Column names and dataset size (rows, file size) are unknown across all sources.
• Data is not on a geospatial grid and is ordered by acquisition time and radar range, requiring processing for spatial analysis.
• Conflicting metadata: one source lists an 'other-license-specified', while another lists no license.

Provenance

Source

POCLOUD (as listed on one platform)

Collection Method

Airborne radar measurements from a DopplerScatt instrument mounted on a B200 aircraft during daily surveys.

Time Range

October 2021 (two-week pilot campaign)

Freshness

Last updated metadata dates conflict: one source shows 2026-04-09, another shows 2023-04-30.

Geography

Approximately 300 km offshore of San Francisco, California.