Ocean surface wind worldwide, every 6 hours (high-res)

This data set contains 6-hourly, global gridded wind speed and direction at 1/64th degree horizontal resolution from the MWOW (Multi-sensor Worldwide Ocean Winds) Project. It is a harmonized wind product combining retrievals from the KaRIn satellite-based SAR (synthetic aperture radar) with interpolated data from three scatterometers and one radiometer for comparison where SAR data is available. Data are available in netCDF format, with one file for each 6-hour timestep. Note that data from the instruments are not aggregated together to create a composite wind map for each timestep. Rather, observations from each instrument are kept separate, split over the “time” dimension. Further, any observations from the same instrument that overlap spatially in the 6-hour window are also reported as separate observations along this time dimension. Version 0 of these data include an initial bulk ingest of data in January 2026 with forward streaming planned for later in the year. Version 0 is primarily meant for assessment by stakeholders, with future versions likely to incorporate feedback from the stakeholders. No User Guide is planned for this version, although the data are considered science quality. Interested users looking for more information are encouraged to contact the data producer. The MWOW Project is funded by NASA’s Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG) which provides data products developed to meet the needs of stakeholders from US government agencies.