SCATSAT-1 ESDR: Ancillary Ocean Surface Fields for Wind Stress Evaluation

Global ocean surface data from the SCATSAT-1 satellite's Level 2 products, providing ancillary fields interpolated to scatterometer observation points. This version 1.1 dataset includes ERA-5 wind forecasts, GPM IMERG precipitation estimates, and GlobCurrent surface currents at a nominal 12.5 km resolution, collocated in space and time. It represents a science-quality release funded by NASA's MEaSUREs program for evaluation by the International Ocean Vector Winds Science Team.

Use Cases

• Evaluating SCATSAT-1 wind stress retrievals using collocated ERA-5 ocean surface wind forecasts.
• Analyzing relationships between precipitation events from GPM IMERG and ocean surface wind conditions.
• Studying the interaction of surface currents from GlobCurrent with wind-driven ocean processes.
• Validating scatterometer data products with independent, spatially and temporally matched auxiliary fields.

Strengths

• Provides the first science-quality release (v1.1) of this MEaSUREs-funded Earth Science Data Record (ESDR).
• Data is collocated in space and time with SCATSAT-1 observations at a nominal 12.5 km pixel resolution, enabling direct comparison.
• Includes source metadata with DOIs for the integrated ERA-5, IMERG, and GlobCurrent datasets.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names is unavailable across all platform listings.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms provided.
• There is a conflict in the 'last updated' date between sources (2026-04-09 on datagov vs. 2021-03-01 on nasa_earthdata), casting doubt on data freshness.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), MEaSUREs program.

Collection Method

Ancillary fields (ERA-5, GPM IMERG, GlobCurrent) interpolated in space and time to SCATSAT-1 Level 2 scatterometer observations.

Time Range

null

Freshness

2026-04-09 (from datagov), but conflicting with nasa_earthdata's 2021-03-01 date.

Geography

Global coverage, achieved by combining data from all orbital revolutions for a single day.