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Full catalog/RSCAT_L1B_V2.0
RSCAT_L1B_V2.0·v2.0·dataset

Raw ocean wind radar echoes (RapidScat)

RapidScat Level 1B Time-Ordered Geo-Located Sigma-0 Version 2.0
land NASA POCLOUD Level 1B HDF
In plain English

What it measures. Raw radar echo strength from a wind-sensing instrument on the Space Station, recording how strongly the ocean surface bounced the radar signal back, footprint by footprint along the orbit.

How it's made. A low-level product geo-located from the satellite's position and the rawest radar data, with the instrument's pulse footprints (roughly 25 by 35 km) mapped onto the ground.

How & where you'd use it. An expert-only building block: the calibrated input from which ocean wind speed and direction products are derived. Most people should use the higher-level wind products instead of this directly.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › RADAR › SIGMA NAUGHT › NONE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2014-10-03 → 2016-08-19
  • Measured byISS (RapidScat)
  • Processing levelLevel 1B
  • Spatial extent-180, -61, 180, 61
  • FormatsHDF
  • StatusCOMPLETE

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 ISS-RapidScat Version 2.0 Level 1B geo-located Sigma-0 measurements and antenna pulse "egg" and "slice" geometries as derived from ephemeris and the Level 1A dataset. The pulse "egg" represents the complete footprint of the pulse, which has a spatial geometry of approximately 25 km by 35 km. There are 8 slices that constitute the range-binned components of a pulse each of which has a spatial geometry of approximately 25 km by 7 km. The orientation of the long dimension of the slices varies with the rotation of the antenna and thus does not align with the along/across track orientation of the wind vector grid in the L2B/L2A products. Version 2.0 represents a complete historical re-processing of the L1B data record and provides a calibration which is consistent across the several signal to noise ratio states experienced by RapidScat throughout its operation period (see the technical note for Version 2.0 under Documentation). The Version 2.0 is also the dataset used to derive the Version 2.0 wind products (L2B). Data are provided in single-orbit files in HDF-4 format. This dataset is intended for expert use only. If you must use RapidScat Sigma-0 data but you are unsure about how to use the L1B data record, please consider using either of the following L2A datasets: 1) https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/RSCAT_L2A_25KM_V2.0 or 2) https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/RSCAT_L2A_12KM_V2.0. RapidScat is a Ku-band dual beam circular rotating scatterometer retaining much of the same hardware and functionality of QuikSCAT, with exception of the antenna sub-system and digital interface to the ISS Columbus module, which is where RapidScat is mounted. The NASA mission is officially referred to as ISS-RapidScat. Unlike QuikSCAT, ISS-RapidScat is not in sun-synchronous orbit, and flies at roughly half the altitude with a low inclination angle that restricts data coverage to the tropics and mid-latitude regions; the extent of latitudinal coverage stretches from approximately 61 degrees North to 61 degrees South. Furthermore, there is no consistent local time of day retrieval.

Get the data

rscat_l1b_v2.0_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="RSCAT_L1B_V2.0",
    version="2.0",
    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.