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Description

The WindSat Polarimetric Radiometer, launched on January 6, 2003 aboard the Department of Defense Coriolis satellite, was designed to measure the ocean surface wind vector from space. It developed by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Remote Sensing Division and the Naval Center for Space Technology for the U.S. Navy and the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Integrated Program Office (IPO). The dataset contains the Level 1C WindSat Top of the Atmosphere (TOA) TB processed by RSS. The WindSat radiances are turned into TOA TB after correction for hot and cold calibration anomalies, receiver non-linearities, sensor pointing errors, antenna cross-polarization contamination, spillover, Faraday rotation and polarization alignment. The data are resampled on a fixed regular 0.125 deg Earth grid using Backus-Gilbert Optimum Interpolation. The sampling is done separately for fore and aft looks. The 10.7, 18.7, 23.8, 37.0 GHz channels are resampled to the 10.7 GHz spatial resolution. The 6.8 GHz channels are given at their native spatial resolution. The 10.7, 18.7, 23.8, 37.0 GHz channels are absolutely calibrated using the GMI sensor as calibration reference. The 6.8 GHz channels are calibrated using the open ocean with the RSS ocean emission model and the Amazon rain forest as calibration targets. The Faraday rotation angle (FRA) and geometric polarization basis rotation angle (PRA) were added in the last run.

Product Summary

Platforms
CORIOLIS
Instruments
WINDSAT
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
30000 Meters x 30000 Meters<br>50000 Meters x 50000 Meters
Geographic Region
GLOBAL ,
TROPICS
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
2003-02-01 to 2020-10-19
Data Partner
Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA (NASA/JPL/PODAAC) ,
Remote Sensing Systems (RSS)
Concept ID
C2559430954-POCLOUD
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
73932
Processing Level
1C
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Radar Cross-Section ,
Radar Reflectivity ,
Surface Winds ,
WIND VELOCITY/SPEED

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

Remote Sensing Systems. (2022). RSS WindSat L1C Calibrated TB Version 8 [Data set]. NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/WSA80-1CRTB Date Accessed: 2025-12-15

Documents

USER'S GUIDE

DATA CITATION GUIDELINES

PUBLICATIONS

Variables

Variables are a set of physical properties whose values determine the characteristics or behavior of something. For example, temperature and pressure are variables of the atmosphere. Parameters and variables can be used interchangeably. Variable level attributes provide individual information for each variable.

The Name in this table is the variable name. Fill value indicates missing or undefined data points in a variable. Valid range is the range of values the variable can store. Scale factor is used to increase or decrease the size of an object and can be used to correct for distortion. For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor
earth_azimuth_angle Average azimuthal look angle relative to North degree float -9999 0 to 360 1
earth_incidence_angle Average earth incidence angle degree float -9999 0 to 90 1
fra Faraday rotation angle degree float -9999 0 to 360 1
fractional_orbit fractional orbit 1 double N/A 0 to 1 1
land_fraction_06 approximate land fraction within 6.8 GHz footprint 1 float N/A 0 to 1 1
land_fraction_10 approximate land fraction within 10.7 GHz footprint 1 float N/A 0 to 1 1
latitude Latitude of OI Earth grid cell degrees_north float N/A -90 to 90 1
longitude Longitude of OI Earth grid cell degrees_east float N/A 0 to 360 1
pra geometric polarization basis rotation angle between surface and antenna degree float -9999 0 to 360 1
quality_flag 8-bit quality control flag 1 byte N/A N/A 1
scan_angle average scan angle of observations within grid cell. degree float -9999 0 to 360 1
tb_06 TOA brightness temperature of 6.8 GHz band. Pol basis V, H Kelvin short -32768 N/A 0.01
tb_10 TOA brightness temperature of 10.7 GHz band. Pol basis V, H, +45, -45, LC, RC Kelvin short -32768 N/A 0.01
tb_18 TOA brightness temperature of 18.7 GHz band. Pol basis V, H, +45, -45, LC, RC Kelvin short -32768 N/A 0.01
tb_23 TOA brightness temperature of 23.8 GHz band. Pol basis V, H Kelvin short -32768 N/A 0.01
tb_37 TOA brightness temperature of 37.0 GHz band. Pol basis V, H, +45, -45, LC, RC Kelvin short -32768 N/A 0.01
time Time of observation seconds since 2000-1-1 0:0:0 0 double -9999 N/A 1
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