The Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) announced the public release of the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) Science Data Record (SDR) Version 3.2 (V3.2) Level 3 merged (L3 MRG) near real-time (NRT) wind speed data product. The dataset is produced by combining Level 2 Fully Developed Seas (FDS) and Young Seas Limited Fetch (YSLF) winds data, eliminating the need to choose between them depending on sea state development and proximity to storms. The data are provided in netCDF-4 format and extend from August 1, 2018, to the present, with an approximate 2 and 24 hours latency.
The L3 Merged Storm (MRG) NRT wind speed product combines CYGNSS Storm-Centric Gridded (SCG) wind speeds, which are derived from the L2 YSLF winds for a region surrounding a given tropical cyclone (TC), with L3 FDS winds away from the TC center. A tapered weighted averaging scheme is used centered on the 34-knot wind radius (R34) of the storm. The R34 value in each storm quadrant is also reported. The algorithm produces global (+/- 40 deg latitude) wind speeds reported on a 0.1x0.1 deg grid every 6 hours for each tropical cyclone, although some 6-hourly increments may be missing if there are an insufficient number of satellite overpasses of the storm during that time interval. The netCDF files are output on a storm-by-storm basis.
The CYGNSS datasets and documents are accessible via the dataset landing page. Users are recommended to download the data using the podaac-data-subscriber. We also encourage users to visit the PO.DAAC Cloud Cookbook for detailed information about how to access the data from NASA Earthdata Cloud.
References
Ruf, C., D. McKague, D. Posselt, S. Gleason, M.P. Clarizia, V. Zavorotny, T. Butler, J. Redfern, W. Wells, M. Morris, J. Crespo, C. Chew, E. Small, D. Pasqual, T. Wang, A. Warnock, D. Mayers, M. Al-Khaldi, A. O’Brien. CYGNSS Handbook (2nd ed.), Michigan Publishing Services, Ann Arbor, MI, ISBN 978-1-60785-549-1, https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.12741920, 227 pp, 2022.
Mayers, D. R., C. S. Ruf, A. M. Warnock, “CYGNSS Storm-Centric Tropical Cyclone Gridded Wind Speed Product,” J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-22-0054.1, 2023.
Please contact PO.DAAC or visit PO.DAAC on Earthdata Forum with any questions.