Cross-Calibrated Multi-Platform Ocean Surface Wind Vector Analysis Product V2, 1987 - ongoing

Satellite wind retrievals derived by Remote Sensing Systems from a number of satellite-borne passive and active microwave instruments are used. RSS intercalibrates radiometers at the brightness temperature level to within 0.2 degree Celsius, applying a refined sea-surface emissivity model and radiative transfer function to derive surface winds.

The resulting wind retrievals are highly consistent between microwave radiometer instrument platforms, including SSM/I, SSMIS, AMSR, TMI, WindSat, and GMI. RSS has also developed a geophysical model function for deriving wind speeds and directions from microwave scatterometers, including QuikSCAT and ASCAT. Both radiometer and scatterometer data are validated against ocean moored buoys, which confirm the measurements are in agreement (to within 0.8 m/s) despite the difference in wind measurement and retrieval methodologies.