QuikSCAT Level 2B Ocean Wind Vectors in 12.5km Slice Composites Version 4.1

(QSCAT_LEVEL_2B_OWV_COMP_12_KUSST_LCRES_4.1)
Version4.1
Processing Level2
Start/Stop Date1999-Oct-27 to 2009-Nov-22
Short NameQSCAT_LEVEL_2B_OWV_COMP_12_KUSST_LCRES_4.1
DescriptionThis dataset contains the latest reprocessed version 4.1 of the Level 2B science-quality ocean surface wind vector retrievals from the QuikSCAT scatterometer. The retrievals are provided on a non-uniform grid within the swath at 12.5 km pixel resolution. Higher resolution is achieved through a slice composite technique in which high resolution slice measurements from L1B data are composited into a 12.5 km wind vector cell. Each L2B file corresponds to a specific orbital revolution (rev) number, which begins at the southernmost point of the ascending orbit. This is an official dataset produced by the NASA QuikSCAT Project through the SeaWinds Processing and Analysis Center (SeaPAC). Version 4.1 processing begins with the same L1B (time-ordered backscatter) data as used in the previous Version 4.0 processing. This new version has a number of key improvements and changes over the previous version 4.0, including: 1) winds are now retrieved to within 5-km and 10-km of the coast within oceans/seas and lakes respectively; 2) coastal winds are now flagged as poor coastal quality and likely corrupted in orbits with estimated spacecraft pitch error greater than 0.04 degrees, which affects 150 orbits of data where coastal winds are severely contaminated by land due to poor attitude knowledge (note: attitude error tracking can identify pitch error but not yaw error, so when estimated pitch error is far from zero, it implies yaw error is large and uncorrected); 3) coastal winds are flagged based upon the long term mean wind speed and standard deviation of wind speed for each place on the ground; 4) four quantities, means and standard deviations computed with and without the land contamination correction algorithm applied (note: higher mean and smaller standard deviation are evidence of land contamination), are used to estimate the expected wind speed bias with respect to neighboring wind vector cells over open water; 5) wind vector cells with estimated speed bias greater than 0.4 m/s are flagged as poor coastal quality and likely corrupted; 6) winds within 5-km of the coast of an ocean/sea and 10-km of the coast of a lake are flagged as poor coastal quality and likely corrupted; the larger distance threshold for lakes is due to higher variability in lake water levels.
DOI10.5067/QSX12-L2B41
MeasurementOCEANS > OCEAN WINDS > SURFACE WINDS
OCEANS > OCEAN WINDS > SURFACE WINDS
Swath Width1800 km
Platform/Sensor
QUIKSCAT
Platform
Name: QUIKSCAT (QUIKSCAT)
Orbit Period: 100.93 minutes
Inclination Angle: 98.6 degrees
/
SEAWINDS
SENSOR
Name: SeaWinds Scatterometer (SEAWINDS)
Swath Width: 1800.0 kilometers
Description: Spacecraft angular distance from orbital plane relative to the Equator.

ProjectQuick Scatterometer (QUIKSCAT)
Data ProviderPublisher: PO.DAAC
Creator: SeaPAC
Release Place: PO.DAAC
Release Date: 2020-Sep-04
Resource: https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/QuikSCAT

FormatnetCDF-4
Keyword(s)wind data, wind, ocean wind, wind speed, vector, vectors, ocean wind vector, ocean wind vectors, seawinds, quikscat, scatterometer, l2b, level 2, level 2b, version 4.1, v4.1
Questions related to this dataset? Contact podaac@podaac.jpl.nasa.gov
Resolution
Spatial Resolution: 12500 Meters x 12500 Meters
Temporal Resolution: Hourly - < Daily
 
Coverage
Region: GLOBAL OCEAN
North Bounding Coordinate: 90 degrees
South Bounding Coordinate: -90 degrees
West Bounding Coordinate: -180 degrees
East Bounding Coordinate: 180 degrees
Time Span: 1999-Oct-27 to 2009-Nov-22
Granule Time Span: 1999-Oct-27 to 2009-Nov-22
Swath Width: 1800 km
 
Projection
Projection Type: Satellite Native Swath
Projection Detail: Geolocation information included for each pixel
Ellipsoid: WGS 84
 
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DATA CITATION POLICY
Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. Please cite the data as follows, and cite the reference papers when it is appropriate.
Citation SeaPAC. 2020. QuikSCAT Level 2B Ocean Wind Vectors in 12.5km Slice Composites Version 4.1. Ver. 4.1. PO.DAAC, CA, USA. Dataset accessed [YYYY-MM-DD] at https://doi.org/10.5067/QSX12-L2B41

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