Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/rssmif16d
rssmif16d·v7·dataset

Daily ocean winds, vapor and rain (DMSP F16)

RSS SSMIS OCEAN PRODUCT GRIDS DAILY FROM DMSP F16 NETCDF V7
atmosphere NASA GHRC_DAAC Level 3 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Daily ocean conditions over the sea, including wind speed at the surface, water vapor in the air, cloud water, and rain rate.

How it's made. Retrieved from the SSMIS microwave instrument on the DMSP F16 satellite using a single physically based algorithm, carefully matched to earlier sensors and repackaged into netCDF files.

How & where you'd use it. Extends a long, consistent record of ocean winds, moisture, and rain that supports weather analysis, climate studies, and tracking of storms and changing ocean conditions.

What's measured

Atmosphere › Precipitation › Precipitation RateOceans › Ocean Winds › Surface WindsAtmosphere › Precipitation › Liquid Precipitation › RainAtmosphere › Atmospheric Winds › Surface WindsAtmosphere › Clouds › Cloud Microphysics › Cloud Liquid Water/IceAtmosphere › Atmospheric Water Vapor › Water Vapor Indicators › Water Vapor

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2003-10-26 → ongoing
  • Measured byDMSP 5D-3/F16 (SSMIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

The RSS SSMIS Ocean Product Grids Daily from DMSP F16 netCDF dataset is part of the collection of Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) and Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS) data products produced as part of NASA's MEaSUREs Program. Remote Sensing Systems generates SSM/I and SSMIS binary data products using a unified, physically based algorithm to simultaneously retrieve ocean wind speed, water vapor, cloud water, and rain rate. The SSMIS data have been carefully intercalibrated to the brightness temperature level of the previous SSM/I and therefore extend this important time series of ocean winds, vapor, cloud and rain values. This algorithm is a product of 20 years of refinements, improvements, and verifications. The Global Hydrology Resource Center has reformatted the binary data into a netCDF data product for each temporal group for each satellite. The netCDF SSMI/SSMIS collection will be available for F16 daily.

Get the data

rssmif16d_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="rssmif16d",
    version="7",
    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 GHRC_DAAC
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.