The SeaWinds instrument, which flew on NASA's Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) satellite and NASA/JAXA's ADEOS-II, was a A Ku-band (13.4 GHz) scatterometer featuring a circular dish antenna, which provides pencil-beam radar backscatter measurements. SeaWinds provided all-weather ocean surface wind vector measurements over Earth's ice-free global oceans. The instrument was designed to improve weather predictions and models, in part to help plan for and anticipate extreme weather conditions such as floods, hurricanes, and tsunamis.
Delivery of Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite data products will cease on November 1, 2026. Data users should transition now to alternative products from NOAA-21 and NOAA-20.
Suomi NPP data announcement