| Overview
NASA's SeaWinds Scatterometer will provide high accuracy wind speed and direction measurements over at least 90% of the ice-free global oceans every 2 days. SeaWinds will provide a continuing set of long term wind data for studies of ocean circulation, climate, air-sea interaction and weather forecasting. SeaWinds is a follow on to the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) which is a sensor on ADEOS and will, like NSCAT, provides measurements of ocean surface winds in all weather and cloud conditions.
The SeaWinds will use a one meter diameter dish antenna with two beams rotated about the satellite nadir axis at 18 RPM. SeaWinds radiates and receives microwave pulses at a frequency of 13.4 GHz across on 1800km wide swath.
Scatterometers use a highly indirect technique to measure wind velocity over the ocean. Changes in the wind velocity cause changes in ocean surface roughness, modifying the radar cross section of the ocean and the magnitude of the backscattered power. Multiple, collocated, measurements acquired from several directions can be used to solve wind speed and direction simultaneously.
Characteristics
| Wind speed |
2m/s(RMS) : 3-20m/s
10% : 20-30m |
| Wind direction |
20°(RMS)3-30m/s |
| Spatial Resolution |
25km |
| Location Accuracy |
15km(RMS) |
| Coverage |
90% of the oceans in 2days |
| Transmit Frequency |
13.402GHz |
| Transmit Power |
120W |
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