WMO OSCAR | Details for Instrument SCAT (CFOSAT)

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Instrument: SCAT (CFOSAT)

Instrument details

Acronym	SCAT (CFOSAT)
Full name	Scatterometer
Purpose	Sea-surface vector wind.
Short description	Rotating Fan-beam Scatterometer (RFSCAT). Ku-band (13.256 GHz), dual polarisation (HH and VV).
Background	New development,
Scanning Technique	Combining the fan-pencil concept (such as, e.g., ASCAT) and the rotating concept (such as, e.g., WindSat). Rotating speed: 5.7 rpm; swath 1000 km. Duty cycle 15-35 %.
Resolution	High quality data: 50 km. Basic sampling: 10 km.
Coverage / Cycle	Global in one week.
Mass		Power	Data Rate	220 kbps

Providing Agency	CNSA
Instrument Maturity
Utilization Period:	2019 to 2027
Last update:	2021-06-15

Detailed characteristics

Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Chinese-French Oceanography Satellite (CNSA)
- CFOSAT (see instrument status) Oct 2018 - 2022
- CFOSAT follow-on (see instrument status) 2022 - 2027

Instrument classification

Earth observation instrument
Active and radio-occultation sensor
Scatterometer

WIGOS Subcomponents

Subcomponent 1
Scatterometers [in SSO]
Scatterometer [in SSO]
Scatterometer [in inclined orbits]

Mission objectives

Primary mission objectives

Wind speed (near surface)
Wind vector (near surface)

Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.

Variable	Relevance for measuring this variable	Operational limitations	Explanation
Leaf Area Index (LAI)	4 - fair	Coarse spatial resolution.	Ku-band scatterometer sensitive to LAI
Sea-ice type	1 - primary	No specific limitation.	Scatterometer, Ku-band (around 13.3 GHz). Type interpreted as age/roughness
Snow cover	3 - high	Coarse spatial resolution.. Thick snow only.	Scatterometer in Ku-band (around 13.3 GHz)
Snow status (wet/dry)	3 - high	Coarse spatial resolution.. Thick snow only.	Scatterometer in Ku-band (around 13.3 GHz)
Snow water equivalent	5 - marginal	Coarse spatial resolution.. Ground stations network needed.	Scatterometer in Ku-band (around 13.3 GHz)
Soil moisture at surface	3 - high	Coarse spatial resolution.. Strongly affected by vegetation.	Scatterometer in Ku-band (around 13.3 GHz)
Wind speed (near surface)*	1 - primary	Over sea only.	Ku-band scatterometer around 13.3 GHz
Wind vector (near surface)*	2 - very high	Over sea only.	Ku-band scatterometer around 13.3 GHz