Wednesday, May 27th, 2020 2:35 Z

Wind Data

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Upper Level Winds (including shear and steering currents)

Surface Winds

Note: On November 23rd, 2009 the QuikSCAT satellite stopped providing real time data due to an instrument failure. On August 19th, 2016 the ISS-RapidScat instrument onboard the International Space Station, which was an instrument quickly constructed to replace QuikSCAT, failed and its mission was later ended.

  • Marine Observing Systems Team (NOAA/NESDIS)
    This site contains various surface wind techniques. Take a look at the options in the left column of the page. You'll see the following surface wind techniques and measurements under "Data Products": ASCAT (METOP-A) (about ASCAT), ASCAT (METOP-B), WindSAT (about) and SSM/I (about).

    You can learn more about the MetOp satellites here or in a Wikipedia entry here. You can learn more about WindSAT in a Wikipedia entry here, which contains additional links in the "Bibliography" section. You can learn more about the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) here or in a Wikipedia entry here.
  • Ocean Observing System from NOAA CoastWatch
    This interactive map allows you to view a wide variety of overlays, including surface wind. In the left column, under "Satellite", select "Winds". You can choose "Ascending" or "Descending" passes for ASCAT METOP-A and ASCAT METOP-B. You can also add historical wind data as well, starting from 2016 for ASCAT.
  • NOAA CoastWatch Data Access
    Search for the imagery you want, by region, product and sensor. Some of the surface wind imagery you can view is available below. It appears that an archive of at least over a year's worth of data is available. The links below default to just the past day.

  • Scatterometer Wind Measurements from Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)
    The Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut (English: Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute) is the Dutch national weather service. This site has ASCAT-A and ASCAT-B data which you can access in the right column.
  • Tropical Cyclone Pages from U.S. Navy
    Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC)

    These two sites are very similar. They have a lot of useful content. Note: The second link is safe, but historically you have had to bypass a security warning to view it. Once you select an active storm in the left column, you can look for surface wind imagery available at the top of the page. Because the data is storm specific you will often see that recent wind data is not available. The layout on each site is different. The first link has some wind products in a table at the top of the page. The second link has them in a drop down menu. The most recent imagery will be noted by the color green, followed by yellow and then red, for the oldest.

    The first site has a training site here and the second site has a tutorial here. You will also find additional satellite products from the first site here.
  • WindSat Data at Naval Research Laboratory
    Ascending and descending data is available. Archived data is available since 2003.
A note about some of the sites above. Make sure you note the correct time the data was observed. Some times are simply when the image may have been created, such as the last time the system checked to see if info was available.

Inland Wind Model

  • Inland Wind Model and the Maximum Envelope Of Winds
    This is an estimate of how far the wind will come inland with a landfalling storm. Every storm is different and higher wind speeds may of course be possible than those noted. For a specific storm, consult the National Hurricane Center's advisories.