OSI SAF ASCAT 25-km product viewer

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 present in 25-km 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.
03-Dec-2008	ASCAT 25-km wind product has the operational status.
26-Nov-2008	No winds have been available between 25 November, 15:06 and 26 November, 4:48 UTC due to an interruption in the level 1 data stream.
20-Nov-2008	AWDP version 1_0_15: change to neutral winds and improved calibration of the level 1 product (activated at 2 December).
20-Oct-2008	No winds have been available between 23 October, 09:33 and 15:49 UTC due to a MetOp out of plane manoeuvre.
09-Apr-2008	No winds have been available between 8 April, 07:39 and 9 April, 06:15 UTC due to a MetOp out of plane manoeuvre.
25-Mar-2008	No winds have been available between 19 March, 21:51 and 21 March, 15:12 UTC due to a MetOp payload switch off.
18-Mar-2008	AWDP version 1_0_13: adapted to the three-transponder calibration of the Level 1 product.
16-Jan-2008	No winds have been available between 16 January, 13:33 and 18 January, 9:45 UTC due to an anomaly on the MetOp spacecraft.
12-Dec-2007	AWDP version 1_0l: ASCAT winds are available on the GTS.
18-Oct-2007	No winds have been available between 1:24 and 2:36 UTC sensing time due to a power failure in the KNMI computing facilities.
10-Oct-2007	AWDP version 1_0k: adapted to the improved calibration of the Level 1 product. Wind product status is pre-operational now.
20-Sep-2007	Due to a satellite payload switch off, no wind products have been available between 17 September, 5:09 and 19 September, 19:27 UTC.
23-May-2007	Processing transferred to operational server.
26-Apr-2007	MetOp was switched to fail safe mode on 20 April. No wind products have been available between 20 April, 8:36 and 26 April, 6:24 UTC.
28-Mar-2007	ASCAT 25-km demonstration wind product available on EUMETCast. ASCAT Wind Data Processor software version is 1_0i.
21-Feb-2007	First demonstration version of ASCAT 25-km global wind product.

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 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.

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. Contact the KNMI OSI SAF team for access. The BUFR products are available on the Global Telecommunication System (GTS), as well. The messages are distributed to the Exeter node and can be identified by: header (T1T2A1A2ii) = ISXX[01-06]; CCCC = EHDB.

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, the Swedish Meteorological Institute, Ifremer and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI).

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