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MetOp-A ASCAT Level 2 12.5-km Ocean Surface Wind Vector Climate Data Record Optimized for Coastal Ocean

Published by EUMETSAT/OSISAF;NASA/JPL/PODAAC | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | Catalog Last Checked: July 14, 2026 at 10:35 PM | Dataset Last Updated: June 22, 2026
This dataset represents the first historically reprocessed Level 2 coastal ocean surface wind vector climate data record from the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) on MetOp-A sampled on a 12.5 km grid. This coastal dataset utilizes a spatial box filter to generate a spatial average of the Sigma-0 retrievals from the Level 1B dataset and obtains additional winds near the coast. Since the full resolution L1B Sigma-0 retrievals are used, all non-sea retrievals are discarded prior to the Sigma-0 averaging. Each box average Sigma-0 is then used to compute the vector cell wind using the same CMOD7 geophysical model function as in the operational OSI SAF ASCAT wind vector datasets. With this enhanced coastal retrieval, winds are computed as close to ~15 km from the coast. Each file corresponds to one complete orbit and is provided in netCDF version 3 format. The beginning of the orbit files is defined near the South Pole. ASCAT is a C-band fan beam radar scatterometer, providing two independent swaths of backscatter retrievals, aboard the MetOp-A platform in sun-synchronous polar orbit. It is a product of the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI SAF) provided through the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). For more information on the MetOp mission, please visit: https://www.eumetsat.int/our-satellites/metop-series . For access to more contemporaneous and near-real-time MetOp-A ASCAT 12.5km data, please visit: https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/ASCATA-L2-Coastal. For more timely announcements, users are encouraged to register with the KNMI scatterometer email list: scat@knmi.nl. All intellectual property rights of the OSI SAF products belong to EUMETSAT. The use of these products is granted to every interested user, free of charge. If you wish to use these products, EUMETSAT's copyright credit must be shown by displaying the words "copyright (year) EUMETSAT" on each of the products used. Use cases and feedback on the products will be much appreciated and in fact helps to sustain the reprocessing capability.

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Complete Metadata
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accessLevel public
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description This dataset represents the first historically reprocessed Level 2 coastal ocean surface wind vector climate data record from the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) on MetOp-A sampled on a 12.5 km grid. This coastal dataset utilizes a spatial box filter to generate a spatial average of the Sigma-0 retrievals from the Level 1B dataset and obtains additional winds near the coast. Since the full resolution L1B Sigma-0 retrievals are used, all non-sea retrievals are discarded prior to the Sigma-0 averaging. Each box average Sigma-0 is then used to compute the vector cell wind using the same CMOD7 geophysical model function as in the operational OSI SAF ASCAT wind vector datasets. With this enhanced coastal retrieval, winds are computed as close to ~15 km from the coast. Each file corresponds to one complete orbit and is provided in netCDF version 3 format. The beginning of the orbit files is defined near the South Pole. ASCAT is a C-band fan beam radar scatterometer, providing two independent swaths of backscatter retrievals, aboard the MetOp-A platform in sun-synchronous polar orbit. It is a product of the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI SAF) provided through the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). For more information on the MetOp mission, please visit: https://www.eumetsat.int/our-satellites/metop-series . For access to more contemporaneous and near-real-time MetOp-A ASCAT 12.5km data, please visit: https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/ASCATA-L2-Coastal. For more timely announcements, users are encouraged to register with the KNMI scatterometer email list: scat@knmi.nl. All intellectual property rights of the OSI SAF products belong to EUMETSAT. The use of these products is granted to every interested user, free of charge. If you wish to use these products, EUMETSAT's copyright credit must be shown by displaying the words "copyright (year) EUMETSAT" on each of the products used. Use cases and feedback on the products will be much appreciated and in fact helps to sustain the reprocessing capability.
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identifier 10.15770/EUM_SAF_OSI_0007
keyword 
[
  "earth-science-ocean-winds-oceans-surface-winds"
]
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified 2026-06-22
programCode 
[
  "026:000"
]
publisher 
{
  "name": "EUMETSAT/OSISAF;NASA/JPL/PODAAC",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
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spatial 
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temporal 2007-01-01/2014-04-01
theme 
[
  "Earth Science"
]
title MetOp-A ASCAT Level 2 12.5-km Ocean Surface Wind Vector Climate Data Record Optimized for Coastal Ocean

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