Seasat Scatterometer: Dealiased Ocean Wind Vectors on a 1-Degree Grid

Seasat-A Scatterometer data from 1978 was manually dealiased using contemporaneous ship observations in a collaboration between JPL, UCLA, and AES. This restored 1997 dataset provides global ocean wind vector components on a 1x1 degree grid at six-hour intervals. It represents an early, foundational record of satellite-derived ocean surface winds.

Use Cases

• Reconstructing historical ocean surface wind fields for climate model validation.
• Analyzing the accuracy of early satellite scatterometer data against in-situ ship observations.
• Studying zonal and meridional wind component variability on a global scale.
• Benchmarking automated wind dealiasing algorithms against a manually corrected dataset.

Strengths

• Data was manually dealiased using direct ship observations, suggesting high accuracy for the era.
• Provides global coverage on a standardized 1x1 degree spatial grid.
• Represents a restored and preserved early satellite dataset from a significant 1978 mission.

Limitations

• Column names and precise row/size counts are unavailable from all sources.
• Sources conflict on 'last updated' date (1978 vs. 2026), indicating potential metadata issues.
• Data is from a single, short-lived mission in 1978, limiting temporal coverage.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Atmospheric Environment Service (AES).

Collection Method

Derived from the Seasat-A Scatterometer (SASS) and manually dealiased using ship observations.

Time Range

1978 (specifically from the Seasat mission period, culminating October 11, 1978).

Freshness

Data originates from 1978, with a restoration noted in 1997; platform metadata shows administrative updates in 2026.

Geography

Global.