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CYGNSS Level 2 Ocean Surface Heat Flux Science Data Record Version 3.2

Metadata Updated: August 29, 2025

The CYGNSS level 2 ocean surface heat flux science data record version 3.2 dataset is provided as a service to the oceanographic and meteorological research communities on behalf of the CYGNSS Science Team in direct collaboration with the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) Mission. CYGNSS was launched on 15 December 2016, it is a NASA Earth System Science Pathfinder Mission that was launched with the purpose of collecting the first frequent space‐based measurements of surface wind speeds in the inner core of tropical cyclones. Originally made up of a constellation of eight micro-satellites, the observatories provide nearly gap-free Earth coverage using an orbital inclination of approximately 35° from the equator, with a mean (i.e., average) revisit time of seven hours and a median revisit time of three hours. This dataset provides time-tagged and geolocated ocean surface heat flux parameters with 25x25 kilometer footprint resolution from the Delay Doppler Mapping Instrument (DDMI) aboard the CYGNSS satellite constellation. The reported sample locations are determined by the specular points corresponding to the Delay Doppler Maps (DDMs). Version 3.2 uses CYGNSS Level 2 (L2) Science Data Record (SDR) Version 3.2 surface wind speeds and ECMWF Reanalysis, Version 5 (ERA5). The Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE) algorithm is what is used in this dataset to estimate the latent and sensible heat fluxes and their respective transfer coefficients. While COARE's initial intentions were for low to moderate wind speeds, the version used for this product, COARE 3.5, has been verified with direct in situ flux measurements for wind speeds up to 25 m/s. As CYGNSS does not provide air/sea temperature, humidity, surface pressure or density, the producer of this dataset obtains these values from this dataset obtains these values from ERA5. This dataset is made available from 1 August 2018 to present with an approximate 1 week latency in the netCDF-4 formatted data files, where each file contains data within a 24-hour UTC period from a combination of up to 8 unique CYGNSS spacecraft. More information on CYGNSS can be found on the CYGNSS mission page.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date August 29, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date August 29, 2025
Publisher NASA/JPL/PODAAC;NASA/ESSP/UMICH/CYGNSS
Maintainer
Identifier 10.5067/CYGNS-L2H32
Data Last Modified 2025-08-27
Category Earth Science
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 026:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id b122ab82-94fb-47cc-8242-9fdae08d987c
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/CitingPODAAC
Old Spatial "CARTESIAN",{"NorthBoundingCoordinate":39.8,"WestBoundingCoordinate":-180.0,"EastBoundingCoordinate":180.0,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-39.8}
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 21550cfdda118a2974ad1affc96ca6c8aeceeb661d2032b2fbaa7d0e683494c9
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial
Temporal 2018-08-01/2018-08-01

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