NOAA high resolution sea surface winds data from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) on the RADARSAT-2 satellite

• Main Authors: Frank Monaldo, G. Liu, X. Yang, X. Li, B. Zhang, W. Pichel, Z. Li, X. Zhou, Zhang, Biao, Perrie, William, Vachon, Paris W., Li, Xiaofeng, Pichel, William G., Buo, Jie, He, Yijun
• 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; 0127453; 0127454; 0127821; 0128188; 0128218; 0128254; 0128345; 0128348; 0128382; 0128445; 0128472; 0128904; 0129147; 0129166; 0130370; 0131329; 0134849; 0137764; 0138741; 0140224; 0141437; 0145089; 0146059; 0150187; 0152516; 0155307; 0156236; 0156509; 0156691; 0156912; 0157125; 0157732; 0159806; 0161499; WIND SPEED; SAR; satellite data; RADARSAT-2; US DOC; NOAA; NESDIS; Center for Satellite Applications and Research; Arctic Ocean; Baffin Bay; Baltic Sea; Barents Sea; Beaufort Sea; Bering Sea; Chukchi Sea; Chukchi Sea - NW Coast of Alaska; East China Sea (Tung Hai); Great Lakes; Greenland Sea (including Iceland Sea and North Greenland Sea); Gulf of Alaska; Gulf of Bothnia; Gulf of Finland; Gulf of St. Lawrence; Japan Sea; Kara Sea; Labrador Sea; North Atlantic Ocean; Norwegian Sea; NW Atlantic (limit-40 W); Sargasso Sea; Sea of Okhotsk; White Sea; World-Wide Distribution; Yellow Sea (Hwang Hai); 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; GEOGRAPHIC REGION > GLOBAL OCEAN; OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN; OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN > BARENTS SEA; OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN > BEAUFORT SEA; OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN > CHUKCHI SEA; OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN; OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > BALTIC SEA; OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > GULF OF ST LAWRENCE; OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORWEGIAN SEA; OCEAN > PACIFIC OCEAN > NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN > BERING SEA; OCEAN > PACIFIC OCEAN > NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN > GULF OF ALASKA; OCEAN > PACIFIC OCEAN > NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN > SEA OF JAPAN; OCEAN > PACIFIC OCEAN > NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN > SEA OF OKHOTSK; OCEAN > PACIFIC OCEAN > WESTERN PACIFIC OCEAN > EAST CHINA SEA; OCEAN > PACIFIC OCEAN > WESTERN PACIFIC OCEAN > YELLOW SEA; Arctic; Okhotsk; Canada; Greenland; Pacific; Baffin; Chukchi; Greenland Sea; Iceland; North Atlantic; North Greenland; Alaska
• Online Access: https://search.dataone.org/view/{B2A78352-9D72-4D4F-BAB9-7C3E361E103E}

Synthetic Aperture Radar (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. This data set consists of high resolution sea surface winds data derived from SAR on-board RADARSAT-2 satellite. The basic archive file is a NetCDF4 file containing SAR wind, a land mask, and time and earth location information. Also archived are the maps of the SAR wind in GeoTiFF format. The product utilizes the CoastWatch product format and covers the geographic extent of the SAR image frame from which it was derived.