DATA
GHRSST Level 3U Global Subskin Sea Surface Temperature version7.0.1a from the WindSat Polarimetric Radiometer on the Coriolis satellite
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DOI
10.5067/GHWSA-3UR7A
Short Name
WindSat-REMSS-L3U-v7.0.1a
Description
The WindSat Polarimetric Radiometer, launched on January 6, 2003 aboard the Department of Defense Coriolis satellite, was designed to measure the ocean surface wind vector from space. It developed by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Remote Sensing Division and the Naval Center for Space Technology for the U.S. Navy and the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Integrated Program Office (IPO). In addition to wind speed and direction, the instrument can also measure sea surface temperature, soil moisture, ice and snow characteristics, water vapor, cloud liquid water, and rain rate. Unlike previous radiometers, the WindSat sensor takes observations during both the forward and aft looking scans. This makes the WindSat geometry of the earth view swath quite different and significantly more complicated to work with than the other passive microwave sensors. The Remote Sensing Systems (RSS, or REMSS) WindSat products are the only dataset available that uses both the fore and aft look directions. By using both directions, a wider swath and more complicated swath geometry is obtained. RSS providers of these SST data for the Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) Project, performs a detailed processing of WindSat instrument data in two stages. The first stage produces a near-real-time (NRT) product (identified by "rt" within the file name) which is made as available as soon as possible. This is generally within 3 hours of when the data are recorded. Although suitable for many timely uses the NRT products are not intended to be archive quality. "Final" data (currently identified by "v7.0.1a" within the file name) are processed when RSS receives the atmospheric mode NCEP FNL analysis. The NCEP wind directions are particularly useful for retrieving more accurate SSTs and wind speeds. The final "v7.0.1a" products will continue to accumulate new swaths (half orbits) until the maps are full, generally within 7 days. The version with letter "a" refers to the file incompliance with GHRSST format.
Version
7.0.1a
Measurement
OCEANS
› OCEAN TEMPERATURE
› SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE
› Sub-skin Sea Surface Temperature
Processing Level
3U
Coverage
Global
Northernmost Latitude
39.01
Southernmost Latitude
-39.06
Westernmost Longitude
-179.99
Easternmost Longitude
180.0
Time Span(s)
June 1, 2002 to
October 19, 2020
Resolution
Spatial Resolution
0.25 degrees (Latitude) x 0.25 degrees (Longitude)
Spatial Resolution
25.0 km (Along) x 25.0 km (Across)
Projection
-
Platform/Sensor
CORIOLIS/WINDSAT
Project
Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature
(GHRSST)
Data Provider
PO.DAAC