WindSat Ocean Surface Wind Vector and Sea Surface Temperature Products

WindSat is the first spaceborne fully polarimetric microwave radiometer. WindSat's primary mission is to evaluate the capability of radiometers to provide measurements of the ocean surface wind vector. We have developed an optimal estimation algorithm for retrieving the ocean surface wind vector and sea surface temperature from WindSat measurements. The algorithm also retrieves columnar atmospheric water vapor and columnar atmospheric cloud liquid water. We use a physically-based forward model for the WindSat brightness temperatures which couples a one-layer atmospheric model with a sea surface emissivity model that accounts for wind-induced roughness and sea surface foam. This presentation will briefly describe the retrieval algorithm. The primary focus of the presentation will be to provide a description of the WindSat ocean retrieval products and guidelines for using and interpreting them. We will also discuss how to access both near-real-time and archived WindSat data. Analyses of WindSat retrieval performance relative to in situ data and retrievals from other sensors will be presented.