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Full catalog/CYGNSS_NOAA_L2_SWSP_25KM_V1.2
CYGNSS_NOAA_L2_SWSP_25KM_V1.2·v1.2·dataset

Ocean wind speed from GPS reflections (CYGNSS, 25 km)

NOAA CYGNSS Level 2 Science Wind Speed 25-km Product Version 1.2
land NASA POCLOUD Level 2 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. This reports ocean surface wind speed in 25 km grid cells along the satellite's measurement tracks. It tells you how fast the wind is blowing over the sea, including in strong-wind conditions like storms.

How it's made. It is derived from GPS-type signals reflecting off the ocean and picked up by instruments on the CYGNSS satellite constellation, then processed by NOAA into averaged, debiased wind speeds with quality flags and error estimates.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for monitoring ocean storms and hurricanes and improving weather forecasts, since the technique can see through heavy rain that blinds some other sensors.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › RADAR › RADAR CROSS-SECTION › BISTATIC RADAR CROSS-SECTIONOCEANS › OCEAN WINDS › SURFACE WINDS › OCEAN SURFACE WIND SPEEDOCEANS › OCEAN WINDS › SURFACE WINDS

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2017-05-01 → ongoing
  • Measured byCYGNSS (DDMI)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -40, 180, 40
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

This dataset contains the Version 1.2 NOAA CYGNSS Level 2 Science Wind Speed Product Version 1.2 which provides the time-tagged and geolocated average wind speed (m/s) in 25x25 kilometer grid cells along the measurement tracks from the Delay Doppler Mapping Instrument (DDMI) aboard the CYGNSS satellite constellation. This version corresponds to the second science-quality released through the PO.DAAC, as produced by NOAA/NESDIS using a specific geophysical model function (GMF version 1.0) and a track-wise debiasing algorithm as part of the wind speed retrieval process. The reported retrieval locations are determined by averaging the specular point locations falling within each 25 km grid cell. Version 1.2 includes four major updates compared to Version 1.1 ( https://doi.org/10.5067/CYGNN-22511 ), namely: 1) the inclusion of data associated to a spacecraft roll angle exceeding +/- 5 degrees; 2) an improved wind speed performance in the higher wind speed regime; 3) a full revision of the quality flags; 4) the inclusion of a wind speed retrieval error variable. Only one netCDF-4 data file is produced for each day (each file containing data from up to 8 unique CYGNSS spacecraft) with a latency of approximately 6 days (or better) from the last recorded measurement time. Formatting of the data variables and metadata designed to be consistent with the netCDF-4 formatting provided by the legacy CYGNSS mission Level 2 wind speed science data record (SDR).

Get the data

cygnss_noaa_l2_swsp_25km_v1.2_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="CYGNSS_NOAA_L2_SWSP_25KM_V1.2",
    version="1.2",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from POCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.