Product shows the wind vector, consisting of speed and direction, at an assigned height (100-400 mb, 400-700 mb, and below 700 mb) above the Earth's surface based on the infrared energy signatures and guidance from corresponding numerical weather forecast parameters. It is generated from geostationary satellites using Imager data in hemispheric and mercator projections by tracking features in the infrared window channel data.
The APL/NOAA SAR Wind Retrieval System (ANSWRS) converts normalized radar cross section (NRCS) measurements obtained from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery and converts them to wind speed values. The process is similar to that employed for determining wind speed from scatterometers, but is achieved at spatial resolutions on the order of 500m. The process is run on a per image basis as the imagery becomes availabl
Jason-3 wind speeds are estimated from the shape and intensity of the altimeter radar echo, representing ~2-5 km footprint depending on sea state, to within 1.6 meters/second.
The Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) ocean surface winds are a 10 meter neutral stability wind. These products are processed by NOAA/NESDIS utilizing measurements from ASCAT aboard the EUMETSAT MetOp polar orbiting satellite. For closer examination of the wind fields, a data image is further divided into 30x20 degree bins between latitudes 80N to 80S and longitudes 180W to 180E, forming a HTML link map for the regions of interest. Just click on the desired geographical location and a closer look should be provided. The European ASCAT system provides a partial mitigation for QuikSCAT surface winds.
The global wind images display the available data from the previous 22 hours up to the image creation time.
Two resolutions are available, 25 Km and 50 Km
The product shows wind speed over oceans. The wind speed is derived from the passive microwave sensor SSM/IS, which has 7 channels of 19 GHz (H, V), 22 GHz (V), 37 GHz (H, V), and 85 GHz (H, V), where H is the horizontal polarization, V is the vertical polarization. The wind speed has accuracy of 0.1 m/s. The product is updated once per day at 4 am EST.
This product is generated initially by the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC). NOAA/NESDIS gets the product through an interagency program referred to as the Shared Processing Program in which NOAA, the US Air Force and US Navy participate. OSPO converts the product into HDF-EOS and WMO BUFR formats and distributed to users.