New SMOS Wind Data Service products available
Datasets
The ESA/SMOS Wind Data Service operated by Ifremer/CERSAT/OceanDataLab produces since 2018 three types of products:
- “SMOS Near Real Time Level 2 swath wind speed” (SMOS L2WS NRT) products, which are SMOS retrieved surface wind speed gridded maps with a spatial sampling of 1/4°x 1/4° and consisting of orbital segments (containing parts of ascending and descending half orbits) following the granularity of the SMOS Level 1B near real time (NRT) brightness temperature data products. SMOS L2WS NRT products are available within 4 to 6 hours from sensing and are generated in NetCDF-4 format,
- SMOS “wind radii fixes” (SMOS WRF) products. Using the Tropical Cyclones (TCs) best-track storm center and intensity forecasts from the Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecast System (ATCF) developed by Naval Research Laboratory, Marine Meteorology Division, SMOS L2 swath which interecepts current storms are determined. For interceptions with sufficient swath coverage, the processor produces SMOS WRF files generated in the so-called “Fix (F-deck)” ATCF format. The SMOS WRF “fixes” to the best-track forecasts contain: the SMOS 10-min maximum-sustained winds (in knots) and wind radii (in nautical miles) for the 34 kt (17 m/s), 50 kt (25 m/s), and 64 kt (33 m/s) winds per geographical storm quadrants and for each SMOS pass intercepting a TC in all the active ocean basins. SMOS WRF products are available within 4 to 6 hours from sensing and are generated in ASCII format.
- the “SMOS Level 3 daily wind speed” (SMOS L3WS) products. SMOS L3WS products are daily composite maps of the collected SMOS L2 swath wind products for a specific day, provided with the same grid than the Level 2 wind data (SMOS L2WS NRT) but separated into ascending and descending passes. SMOS L3WS products are available the day after from sensing and are generated in NetCDF-4 format.
Data access
The SMOS NRT wind products can be accessed in two manners using either the Ifremer or ESA/SMOS dissemination services:
Dissemination service at Ifremer / CERSAT
The complete archive of generated SMOS Wind Service products is accessible to the user community online, through FTP and HTTPS. While FTP is still very popular, it is also being banned now by many agencies. The complementary HTTPS access service is therefore proposed to users providing to the exact same product archive, through the same credentials.
The credentials to access the data will be obtained from a simple registration web form hosted at Ifremer. They will be returned automatically to the user once he has completed the registration process.
The FTP and HTTPS services use the same credentials.
FTP | HTTPS | |
URL | ftp://eftp1.ifremer.fr | https://smos-wind.ifremer.fr |
Path | /smos-wind | / |
Login | s031c63 | |
Password | to be obtained by filling the registration form at https://forms.ifremer.fr/lops-siam/smos-wind-data-access/ | |
ESA SMOS Dissemination Service (from June 2020)
The SMOS NRT wind products are also available on the ESA SMOS Data Dissemination Server (https://smos-diss.eo.esa.int).
Data is organised into collections accessible via a web interface and via FTP.
A Simple Catalogue allows for data navigation and selection by data type and acquisition date.
In order to download files, users must be logged in with an ESA EO SSO account (to create one please follow this link: Start registration process).
Documentation
The documentation for the SMOS wind Data Service products can be found on the previously described ftp/http services and in the following links:
http://www.smosstorm.org/Document-tools/SMOS-Wind-Data-Service-Documentation