Ocean and Sea Ice SAF 

Wind Processing Centre   
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Updated @ 2013-05-20 03:04 utc
OSI SAF ASCAT-A 12.5-km product
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Monitoring information
Buoy validations
Ice maps
Data from previous day
Background information
Modifications/anomalies
Description of plots
Access to products
Acknowledgements
ASCAT Product User Manual
ASCAT 12.5-km Validation report
Home OSI SAF Wind Centre
OSI SAF Wind Products
ASCAT-A 25-km winds
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ASCAT-A Coastal winds
Pre-operational status
ASCAT-B 25-km winds
In development status
ASCAT-B Coastal winds
In development status
Oceansat-2 winds
Operational status
QuikSCAT winds
Discontinued status
Wind Products Processing Status
Other Wind Services at KNMI
ASCAT-A 25-km winds (EARS)
Operational status
ASCAT-A 12.5-km winds (EARS)
Operational status
ERS-2 winds (EARS)
Discontinued status
Scatterometer work at KNMI
Software
BUFR reader
Related links
EUMETSAT
Ocean and Sea Ice SAF
EUMETSAT EARS system
Numerical Weather Prediction SAF
Description of ASCAT instrument at ESA
ASCAT archived data at the EUMETSAT Data Centre
ASCAT archived NetCDF data at PO.DAAC
ASCAT12, status: operational
Ascending passes
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Descending passes
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Modifications/anomalies
14-May-2013 AWDP version 2_2_00: preparation for level 1b data format change.
25-Apr-2013 No winds have been available between 24 April, 11:03 and 25 April, 0:35 UTC due to a data reception issue at KNMI.
21-Mar-2013 No winds have been available between 20 March, 12:27 and 21 March, 6:50 UTC due to a Metop out of plane manoeuvre.
06-Feb-2013 The ASCAT winds have been unavailable on 6 February between 1:45 and 5:09 UTC sensing time due to an issue with the KNMI EUMETCast reception station.
18-Sep-2012 AWDP version 2_1_01: implementation of Bayesian ice screening.
30-Jul-2012 The product monitoring flag was raised more often than usual in the ASCAT wind products in June and July. This is due to issues in the ice screening. As long as the appropriate flags are considered, the products can be used without restrictions.
23-Oct-2011 Due to a Metop-A spontaneous payload switch-off, the ASCAT wind products have been unavailable between 22 October, 21:54 and 23 October, 15:45 UTC sensing time.
18-Oct-2011 The provision of ASCAT winds has been interrupted between 17 October 23:27 and 18 October 4:12 UTC sensing time due to a hardware problem at KNMI.
30-Sep-2011 Due to an issue in the level 1 backscatter data, no winds were available in the descending Metop passes between 29 September, 2:21 and 29 September 14:36 UTC.
29-Sep-2011 No winds have been available between 28 September, 11:36 and 29 September, 2:21 UTC due to a Metop out of plane manoeuvre.
05-Sep-2011 Due to an EUMETCast service interruption, the ASCAT winds have been unavailable between 4 September, 20:39 and 5 September, 2:42 UTC sensing time.
30-Aug-2011 The provision of ASCAT wind data has been delayed on 29 August, between 9:00 and 14:00 UTC due to a hardware problem at KNMI.
16-Aug-2011 AWDP version 2_1_00: up to four wind solutions present in the 12.5 km BUFR products, use of NWP Ocean Calibration for more uniform wind characteristics across the swath.
16-May-2011 ASCAT winds have been unavailable between 14 May, 10:51 and 16 May, 10:50 UTC due to an instrument anomaly.
28-Feb-2011 Both wind and soil moisture information are available in a multi-parameter BUFR product.
05-Jan-2011 ASCAT winds had reduced quality (wind speed bias approx. 0.5 m/s) and have been temporarily unavailable due to a problem in the ASCAT on-board power gain between 3 January, 3:30 and 4 January, 15:15 UTC.
06-Oct-2010 No winds have been available between 5 October, 11:38 and 6 October, 5:12 UTC due to a MetOp out of plane manoeuvre.
26-Apr-2010 ASCAT wind data were unavailable for instrument sensing times from 26 April, 8:15 to 10:48 UTC due to problems with the L1 data reception at KNMI.
26-Mar-2010 ASCAT data were unavailable for instrument sensing times from 26 March, 10:51 to 12:30 UTC.
20-Mar-2010 ASCAT data were unavailable for instrument sensing times from 19 March, 23:30 to 20 March, 06:24 UTC.
18-Feb-2010 No winds have been available between 18 February, 9:50 and 15:24 UTC due to a spontaneous ASCAT switch-off.
02-Feb-2010 OSI-SAF products disseminated on EUMETCast are also available to users in Africa and the Americas now.
12-Jan-2010 AWDP version 1_0_19: products in BUFR Edition 4 and up to four wind solutions used for ambiguity removal (only one solution present in BUFR products).
17-Sep-2009 No winds have been available between 17 September, 13:48 and 16:00 UTC due to a MetOp out of plane manoeuvre.
01-Sep-2009 AWDP version 1_0_18: wind products are available in NetCDF now on the KNMI FTP server.
30-Jul-2009 There have been problems with the overview images on the website which are solved now.
08-Jul-2009 Due to a local network switch problem at KNMI, wind products have been interrupted and delayed between 3:00 and 6:00 UTC.
21-Apr-2009 AWDP version 1_0_17: upgrades in BUFR encoding.
09-Feb-2009 ASCAT 12.5-km wind product will become available with the operational status on 3 March 2009.
Description
The ASCAT Wind Product contains measurements of the wind direction and wind speed above the sea surface. The measurements are obtained through the processing of scatterometer data originating from the ASCAT instrument on EUMETSAT's Metop-A satellite, as described in the ASCAT Wind Product User Manual.

The processing is done in near-real time. From the sensing time of the last measurement in a product, it takes approximately 2 hours to get the corresponding wind product ready at KNMI.

The last 22 hours of data are shown in two separate plots showing ascending and descending tracks, respectively. This is done to avoid overlap of data in the pictures. Note that also data from previous days can be displayed using the link on the right hand side. The overview plots show color coded wind speed measurements. If you click somewhere in the satellite track, a picture appears showing the scatterometer winds in more detail.

Product monitoring information in near-real time is available through the corresponding link on the right hand side.

Note: This web site is not supported on a 24x7 basis and it should not be considered operational.
Access to products
This wind product is available in BUFR and NetCDF format. The BUFR data are disseminated through the EUMETCast system; for access please contact EUMETSAT. The products are also available on a password protected FTP server (products of the last three days only). Contact the KNMI OSI SAF team for access.

For a swift response management procedure, user requests on this scatterometer wind data product should be issued at the Ocean and Sea Ice SAF website.

Note: All intellectual property rights of the OSI SAF and EARS 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.
Acknowledgements
KNMI hosts the operational deployment of the global products as part of the EUMETSAT Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI SAF), a project by Météo France, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, the Danish Meteorological Institute, Ifremer and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI).

The processing software for the KNMI wind products is developed within the framework of the Numerical Weather Prediction Satellite Application Facility (NWP SAF) sponsored by EUMETSAT.