NOAA high resolution sea surface winds data from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) on the Sentinel-1 satellites

• Main Authors: F. M. Monaldo, C. R. Jackson, W. G. Pichel, X. Li, F. Monaldo, C. Jackson, W. Pichel, Frank Monaldo, Peter Hollemans, J. Sapper
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: NOAA NCEI Environmental Data Archive 2017
• Subjects: DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NODC > National Oceanographic Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce; DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce; DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/STAR > Center for Satellite Applications and Research, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce; 0156881; 0156985; 0157134; 0159177; 0159848; 0161522; 0162261; 0162499; WIND SPEED; SAR; satellite data; SENTINEL-1A; SENTINEL-1B; US DOC; NOAA; NESDIS; Center for Satellite Applications and Research; Arctic Ocean; Bay of Fundy; Beaufort Sea; Bering Sea; Bering Sea - Norton Sound; Caribbean Sea; Chesapeake Bay; Chukchi Sea; Coastal Waters of Florida; Coastal Waters of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia; Delaware Bay; Great Lakes; Gulf of Alaska; Gulf of Maine; Gulf of Mexico; Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary; North Atlantic Ocean; North Pacific Ocean; Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary; oceanography; EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC WINDS > SURFACE WINDS > WIND SPEED/WIND DIRECTION; latitude; longitude; time; wind_speed; SAR > Synthetic Aperture Radar; CONTINENT > NORTH AMERICA > CANADA > GREAT LAKES, CANADA; CONTINENT > NORTH AMERICA > UNITED STATES OF AMERICA > GREAT LAKES; OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN; OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN > BEAUFORT SEA; OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN > CHUKCHI SEA; OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN; OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > BAY OF FUNDY; OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > CARIBBEAN SEA; OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > GULF OF MAINE; OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > GULF OF MEXICO; OCEAN > PACIFIC OCEAN > CENTRAL PACIFIC OCEAN > HAWAIIAN ISLANDS; OCEAN > PACIFIC OCEAN > NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN; OCEAN > PACIFIC OCEAN > NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN > BERING SEA; OCEAN > PACIFIC OCEAN > NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN > GULF OF ALASKA; Arctic; British Columbia; Canada; Coastal Waters Of Southeast Alaska; Norton Sound; Pacific; The Sentinel; Chukchi; Humpback Whale; North Atlantic; Alaska
• Online Access: https://search.dataone.org/view/{1A3ADA34-6D97-4F4F-9FBC-E22AD7E7C45C}

This data set consists of high resolution sea surface winds data produced from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) on board Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B satellites. This product utilizes the CoastWatch product format and the basic archive file is a NetCDF-4 file containing SAR wind, land mask, and time and earth location information. Also archived are maps of the SAR winds in GeoTIFF format. The product covers the geographic extent of the SAR image frame from which it was derived. These SAR-derived high resolution wind products are calculated from high resolution SAR images of normalized radar cross section (NRCS) of the Earth's surface. Backscattered microwave radar returns from the ocean surface are strongly dependent on wind speed and direction. When no wind is present, the surface of the water is smooth, almost glass-like. Radar energy will largely be reflected away and the radar cross section will be low. As the wind begins to blow, the surface roughens and surface waves begin to develop. As the wind continues to blow more strongly, the amplitude of the wave increases, thus, roughening the surface more. As the surface roughness increases, more energy is backscattered and NRCS increases. Moreover, careful examination of the wind-generated waves reveals that these surface wave crests are generally aligned perpendicular to the prevailing wind direction, suggesting a dependence of backscatter on the relative direction between the incident radar energy and the wind direction.