Ocean and Sea Ice SAF 

Wind Processing Centre   
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OSI SAF central
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Updated @ 2009-11-23 18:39 utc
OSI SAF QuikSCAT 25-km product viewer
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Monitoring information
Buoy validations
Data from previous day
Background information
Modifications/anomalies
Description of plots
Access to products
Acknowledgements
SeaWinds Product User Manual
Home OSI SAF Wind Centre
OSI SAF Wind Products
ASCAT 25-km winds
Operational status
ASCAT 12.5-km winds
Operational status
QuikSCAT winds
Discontinued status
Wind Products Processing Status
Other Wind Services at KNMI
ASCAT 25-km winds (EARS)
Operational status
ASCAT 12.5-km winds (EARS)
Operational status
ERS-2 winds (EARS)
Demonstration status
Scatterometer work at KNMI
Software
BUFR reader
Related links
EUMETSAT
Ocean and Sea Ice SAF
Numerical Weather Prediction SAF
JPL/NASA Winds homepage
SeaWinds Near Real Time data at NOAA
SeaWinds Science HDF data at PO.DAAC Seawinds page
SeaWinds collocated data at the IFREMER/CERSAT pages
Product status: discontinued
Ascending passes
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Descending passes
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Modifications/anomalies
23 Nov-2009 The antenna rotation rate has dropped to zero and remains at zero as of 23 Nov, 7:00 UTC. No data are available.
23 Nov-2009 The SeaWinds instrument is near the end of its lifetime due to the aging of the antenna rotary joint. The number of data gaps due to variability in the antenna spinning rate is becoming very large. We advise users to discontinue automatic SeaWinds data ingestions, since the data accuracy can not be guaranteed any more.
07-Sep-2009 No QuikSCAT data was available between 3 Sep, 19:15 and 5 Sep, 22:33 UTC, due to a satellite anomaly.
01-Sep-2009 Wind products are available in NetCDF now on the KNMI FTP server.
06-Aug-2009 No QuikSCAT data was available between August 5, 18:17 UTC and August 6, 00:19 UTC.
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.
29-Dec-2008 Due to data transfer problems, not all SeaWinds 25-km data were transmitted via EUMETCast between 21 Nov and 22 Dec.
01-Dec-2008 No QuikSCAT data was available between 26 Nov, 0:27 and 28 Nov, 23:22 UTC, due to a satellite power supply anomaly.
26-Jun-2008 No QuikSCAT data was available between 24 Jun, 8:57 and 25 Jun, 17:19 UTC, due to a spacecraft computer reset.
28-Feb-2008 SeaWinds 25-km product has the operational status.
14-Jan-2008 SDP version 1.6: Changes in Quality Control anticipating changes in input product from NOAA.
18 Dec-2007 Minor anomaly fixed, product monitoring is rectified and the products may be slightly improved due to the use of 12 UTC ECMWF forecast run in the ambiguity removal in addition to the 00 UTC run. Before this date only the 00 UTC ECMWF run was used.
13 Dec-2007 No QuikSCAT data was available between 7 Dec, 1:53 and 20:07 UTC, due to a satellite anomaly.
13 Dec-2007 Data gaps have been present in the Northern hemisphere QuikSCAT data between 20 and 28 Nov, due to a spacecraft battery anomaly.
18-Oct-2007 Wind processing was delayed for some time due to a power failure in the KNMI computing facilities.
10-Sep-2007 SDP version 1.5: Improved ambiguity removal.
21-Aug-2007 Delivery of QuikSCAT data was delayed between 21 Aug, 07:33 and 17:29 UTC, due to network equipment problems at the ground segment in Boulder, Colorado.
10-Apr-2007 No QuikSCAT data was available between 7 Apr, 18:40 and 8 Apr 0:59 UTC, due to satellite anomalies.
13-Mar-2007 No QuikSCAT data was available between 12 Mar, 15:46 and 13 Mar 7:50 UTC, due to a GPS problem on the spacecraft.
05-Mar-2007 No QuikSCAT data was available between 3 Mar, 7:51 and 13:09 UTC, due to an instrument problem.
01-Mar-2007 WVCs with a sea surface temperature below 271.56 K (-1.6 C) are assumed to be covered with ice (threshold was -1.7 C).
23-Jan-2007 Enlarged full resolution detail pictures available in the North Atlantic and European regions.
08-Jan-2007 Delivery of QuikSCAT data was delayed between 7 Jan, 1:40 and 22:53 UTC, due to problems at the NOAA ground station.
23-Nov-2006 Processing of 25-km product is transferred to a new server.
11-Oct-2006 Input files do not contain NCEP background winds since 9 October 1:00 UTC. ECMWF model winds are used instead since 12 October.
20-Sep-2006 Input files did not contain NCEP background winds for approx. 12 hrs. Products did not contain an index of the selected wind solution.
13-Sep-2006 Monitoring information available in product viewer.
21-Aug-2006 No data was received between 21 Aug, 2:56 and 11:04 UTC, due to flooding at the satellite ground station in Boulder, Colorado
31-Jul-2006 No data was received between 15 July, 13:00 and 18 July, 00:45 UTC, due to an anomaly of the satellite transmitter
19-Jun-2006 No data was received on 17 June, between 07:26 and 21:15 UTC, due to satellite anomaly
31-May-2006 User can choose to view either wind arrows or wind flags in the detail pictures
20-Feb-2006 Website supports access to historic data of the last 5 days.
3-Sep-2005 Input files did dot contain a correct ice mask for approx. 4 days. This caused a lot of products to be flagged by the monitoring.
13-Jul-2005 First experimental version of KNMI 25-km product. The Multiple Solution Scheme is applied.
Description
At KNMI the scatterometer wind products coming from the SeaWinds instrument on board the QuikSCAT satellite are processed towards a 25 km product for the EUMETSAT OSI SAF. Details are described in the SeaWinds Product User Manual. The original NOAA SeaWinds products also have a cell spacing of 25 km.

The processing is done in near-real time. From the sensing time of the last measurement in a product, it takes approximately 2-3 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 products 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.

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 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 this product 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 QuikSCAT JPL BUFR products used for this product are made available by NOAA. 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.
The operational implementation of the processing and the internet presentation are developed partially under BCRS contract.