Sea Surface Winds

  1. Satellite Data Products
  2. Sea Surface Winds

Sea Surface Winds also known as Ocean Surface Vector Winds (OSVW) for some techniques

Winds, both magnitude (speed) and direction over the ocean drive other physical and chemical processes and so are used to model dynamic earth/ocean/atmosphere coupled systems ocean and are used for marine weather forecasting. Different remote sensing techniques may be used for gathering information on ocean surface winds including active radar and passive microwave.

The following list shows the various Sea Surface Wind data products available from NOAACoastWatch:

Synthetic Aperture Radar (Surface Roughness) Winds

Updated: May 8, 2020

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 Spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery maps the surface microwave radar reflectivity at resolutions from a sub-meter to 100 m depending on the particular SAR satellite and mode. Since a radar provides its own illumination, imagery is independent of the time of day. At typical radar frequencies, SARs can image through clouds, so SARs are considered "all-weather" instruments.  Several gephysical parameters can be derived from SAR including sea surface wind speed.