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Description

The RapidScat product (NSIDC-0809) provides Ku-band radar backscatter measurements of Sigma Nought (σ⁰, Sigma0) collected by RapidScat’s SeaWinds scatterometer flown aboard the International Space Station between October 2014 and August 2016. It began collecting σ⁰ measurements in October 2014. RapidScat was initially designed to provide σ⁰ measurements of near-surface ocean vector winds, but it also collected σ⁰ measurements over land and ice.

NSIDC-0809 includes Level 1 gridded radar backscatter data collected at 13.4 GHz for two radar channels (horizontal transmit-horizontal receive [HH] and vertical transmit-vertical receive [VV]) over two antenna footprints, termed ‘foot’ and ‘slice’. Twice-daily radar backscatter data includes both conventionally gridded (GRD) and enhanced-resolution (SIR) images gridded to EASE-Grid 2.0 azimuthal and cylindrical projections (Brodzik et al., 2012; Brodzik et al., 2014) at two grid spacings (25 km and 3.125 km).

Version Description

Initial release

Product Summary

Platforms
ISS
Instruments
SEAWINDS
Spatial Extent

N: 67.1 S: -67.1 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
3.125 Kilometers to 25 Kilometers x 3.125 Kilometers to 25 Kilometers
Spatial Reference System(s)
WGS 84 / NSIDC EASE-Grid 2.0 Global (EPSG:6933)
Location
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
2014-10-03 to 2016-08-19
Temporal Resolution
Varies
Concept ID
C4219832271-NSIDC_CPRD
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
47558
Processing Level
1C
Published
Science Keywords
SIGMA NAUGHT

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

Long, D. G., & Miller, J. Z. (2026). RapidScat Twice-Daily SIR-Enhanced EASE-Grid 2.0 Radar Backscatter, Version 1 [Dataset]. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MTQUFEXMZ3EE Date Accessed: 2026-07-14

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