Source/sensor: DMSP SSM/I, ECMWF wind analysis, ship and buoy reports
Coverage: July 1987 - June 2003, global (v.10)
Abstract: There are several products containing SSM/I derived winds over the oceans produced by Robert Atlas and Joseph Ardizzone (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) in collaboration with Ross N. Hoffman (Atmospheric and Environmental Research - AER). A 2D variational analysis method (VAM) was used to combine information from ECMWF 10m surface wind analyses, SSM/I wind speeds (from Frank Wentz, Remote Sensing Systems), and ship and buoy winds to produce new surface wind analyses between -78 and 78 degrees latitude. Based on data availability, ECMWF 1x1 reanalysis data were used for the years 1987 to 1993 and ECMWF operational 1x1 analyses for subsequent years. SSM/I wind speeds have been assimilated every 6 hours starting in July 1987. Please note that version-4 of the Wentz SSM/I was used through September 24, 2004. Version-5 SSM/I was used for all subsequent processing. All DMSP satellites were used based on availability. This includes F08, F10, F11, F13, F14 and F15 satellites. Data sets designated as level 3.0 contain gridded surface winds produced by the VAM. Level 2.5 data sets contain SSM/I wind speeds with wind directions assigned from the VAM analysis. Finally, the level 2.5 data are binned to grid points over 5 and 30 day periods. This is designated as the level 3.5 product. All data sets contain U and V components of the wind in m/s. Gridded data (level 3.0 and 3.5) is represented on a 1.0 degree latitude by 1.0 degree longitude grid and is configured as follows:
rdata(i,j)
i = 1,2,...,360 ==> lon = -180.0,-179.0,...,179
j = 1,2,...,181 ==> lat = -90.0,-89.0,...,90.0
Documentation and software are available on-line.
Data Set Vol:
- ~6.3MB per month for Level 3.0 data
- ~25MB per month for Level 2.5 data
- ~0.1MB for Level 3.5 data
Data/Media Formats: Data are provided in HDF via anonymous FTP to podaac.jpl.nasa.gov in the pub/ocean_wind/ssmi/atlas_ssmi_ver10 directory. |
