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Instrument details
Acronym
SeaWinds
Full name
SeaWinds
Purpose
Sea surface wind vector
Short description
Ku-band (13.4 GHz)
Background
Built by NASA to react to the premature failure of NSCAT on ADEOS
Scanning Technique
Conical scanning, two beams, to provide four views of each spot from different angles; swath 1800 km
Resolution
Best quality: 50 km - standard quality: 25 km - basic sampling: 12.5 km
Coverage / Cycle
Global coverage every day
Mass
200 kg
Power
220 W
Data Rate
40 kbps
Providing Agency
NASA
Instrument Maturity
Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period:
1999 to 2003-10-25
Last update:
2012-07-13
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
Instrument classification
Earth observation instrument Active and radio-occultation sensor Scatterometer
WIGOS Subcomponents
No WIGOS subcomponents have been defined.
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives Wind speed (near surface) Wind vector (near surface) Opportunity objectives Leaf Area Index (LAI) Sea-ice type Snow cover Snow status (wet/dry) Snow water equivalent Soil moisture at surface Show all Show fewer
Tentative 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
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
Instrument: SeaWinds