Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/SCATSAT1_ESDR_L2_WSDERIV_V1.0
SCATSAT1_ESDR_L2_WSDERIV_V1.0·v1.0·dataset

How ocean winds and their push change across space (SCATSat-1)

SCATSAT-1 Inter-Calibrated ESDR Level 2 Observed and Modeled Spatial Derivatives of Surface Wind and Wind Stress Version 1.0
ocean NASA POCLOUD Level 2 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. How ocean surface winds and the push they exert change from place to place, captured as the 'curl' and 'divergence' of the wind and wind stress — essentially the spin and the spreading-or-converging of sea-surface winds.

How it's made. Derived from the SCATSat-1 scatterometer, a wind-measuring radar, then matched up with similar instruments on other satellites so the records agree, provided along the satellite swath at about 12.5-kilometer pixels.

How & where you'd use it. Helps ocean and climate scientists study how winds drive currents and mixing. This early science-quality release is aimed at expert evaluation by the wind science team.

What's measured

OCEANS › OCEAN WINDS › CONVERGENCE/DIVERGENCEOCEANS › OCEAN WINDS › VORTICITY

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2018-04-01 → 2021-03-01
  • Measured bySCATSAT-1 (OSCAT-2)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Watch sea-surface temperature and marine heatwaves
  • Spot algal blooms and ocean-colour shifts
  • Support fisheries and coastal monitoring
Official description

This dataset contains the curl and divergence of ocean surface equivalent neutral wind and wind stress, derived from satellite-based scatterometer observations aboard SCATSAT-1, representing the first science quality release of these data funded under the MEaSUREs program. This product from SCATSAT-1 has been intercalibrated with similar scatterometer measurements from instruments on the MetOp-A, MetOp-B, and QuikScat satellites, all of which can be found on the MEaSUREs OSVW Project Page. These Level 2 data are provided on a non-uniform grid within the satellite swath at ~12.5 km pixel resolution. Each L2 file corresponds to a specific orbital revolution number, which begins at the southernmost point of the ascending orbit. There are typically 14 orbits per day, and the thumbnail preview shows coverage for the first ten orbits in an example day. Estimates for the curls and divergences are computed over several spatial domains with varying radii from the point of interest, and included as separate variables. The dataset represents the first science quality release funded under the MEaSUREs (Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments) program. The primary purpose of this release is for science evaluation by the NASA International Ocean Vector Winds Science Team (IOVWST). This V1.0 of the data was derived from V1.1 of the L2 wind and stress product.

Get the data

scatsat1_esdr_l2_wsderiv_v1.0_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SCATSAT1_ESDR_L2_WSDERIV_V1.0",
    version="1.0",
    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.