Satellite estimates of winds at 10 m above the sea surface by the NASA scatterometer (NSCAT) during the 9-month period October 1996–June 1997 are analyzed to investigate the correlations between the three major wind jets along the Pacific coast of Central America and their relationships to the wind and pressure...
Three months of vector wind observations from the Seasat-A satellite scatterometer (SASS) are used to construct gridded fields of monthly average wind stress and wind stress curl over the global ocean. These fields are examined to identify features either poorly resolved or not present in wind stress fields constructed from...
Satellite measurements of surface wind stress from the QuikSCAT scatterometer and sea surface temperature (SST) from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Microwave Imager are analyzed for the three-month period 21 July–20 October 1999 to investigate ocean–atmosphere coupling in the eastern tropical Pacific. Oceanic tropical instability waves (TIWs) with periods of...
Ambiguity in wind direction has long been an impediment to applications of wind observations from the Seasat scatterometer (SASS). Three months of unambiguous global SASS vector winds (7 July-10 October 1978) have recently become available from the Goddard Space Flight Center(GSFC) Laboratory for Atmospheric Sciences. The directional ambiguities were removed...
Sampling patterns and sampling errors from various scatterometer datasets are examined. Four single and two tandem scatterometer mission scenarios are considered. The single scatterometer missions are ERS (with a single, narrow swath), NSCAT and ASCAT (dual swaths), and QuikSCAT (a single, broad swath obtained from the SeaWinds instrument). The two...
Measurements of near-surface winds by the NASA scatterometer (NSCAT) from October 1996 through June 1997 are analyzed to investigate the three major wind jets along the Pacific coast of Central America that blow over the Gulfs of Tehuantepec, Papagayo, and Panama. Each jet is easily identifiable as locally intense offshore...
The value of Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) measurements of 10-m ocean vector winds for marine weather prediction is investigated from two Northern Hemisphere case studies. The first of these focuses on an intense cyclone with hurricane-force winds that occurred over the extratropical western North Pacific on 10 January 2005. The second...