Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

This site is currently in beta, and your feedback is helping shape its ongoing development.

NOAA high resolution sea surface winds data from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) on the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) satellites

Published by NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Metadata Last Checked: January 27, 2026 | Last Modified: 2026-01-05T00:00:00.000+00:00
This dataset consists of high-resolution sea surface winds data produced from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) on board the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) satellites. The basic archive file is a netCDF-4 file containing SAR wind, land mask, and time and earth location information. Images of the SAR wind data in GeoTIFF format are also included. The product covers the geographic extent of the SAR image frame from which it was derived. These SAR-derived high resolution wind products are calculated from high resolution SAR images of normalized radar cross section (NRCS) of the Earth's surface. Backscattered microwave radar returns from the ocean surface are strongly dependent on wind speed and direction. When no wind is present, the surface of the water is smooth, almost glass-like. Radar energy will largely be reflected away and the radar cross section will be low. As the wind begins to blow, the surface roughens and surface waves begin to develop. As the wind continues to blow more strongly, the amplitude of the wave increases, thus, roughening the surface more. As the surface roughness increases, more energy is backscattered and NRCS increases. Moreover, careful examination of the wind-generated waves reveals that these surface wave crests are generally aligned perpendicular to the prevailing wind direction, suggesting a dependence of backscatter on the relative direction between the incident radar energy and the wind direction.

Find Related Datasets

Click any tag below to search for similar datasets

0289529 0290600 0292414 0293529 0294740 0295974 0297014 0298715 0298716 0299649 0300409 0301559 0302269 0303220 0304016 0304889 0305892 0306879 0307726 0308517 0309252 0310449 0311351 WIND SPEED SAR satellite data RCM-1 (RADARSAT Constellation Mission) RCM-2 (RADARSAT Constellation Mission) RCM-3 (RADARSAT Constellation Mission) Canadian Space Agency NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research NOAA Office of Satellite and Product Operations World-Wide Distribution oceanography DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/OSPO > Office of Satellite and Product Operations, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/STAR > Center for Satellite Applications and Research, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC WINDS > SURFACE WINDS > WIND SPEED latitude longitude time wind_speed SAR > Synthetic Aperture Radar RCM-1 RCM-2 RCM-3 GEOGRAPHIC REGION > GLOBAL OCEAN

Complete Metadata
@type dcat:Dataset
accessLevel non-public
accrualPeriodicity R/P1M
contactPoint 
                                            {
  "fn": "NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information",
  "@type": "vcard:Contact",
  "hasEmail": "mailto:ncei.info@noaa.gov"
}
describedByType application/octet-steam
description This dataset consists of high-resolution sea surface winds data produced from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) on board the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) satellites. The basic archive file is a netCDF-4 file containing SAR wind, land mask, and time and earth location information. Images of the SAR wind data in GeoTIFF format are also included. The product covers the geographic extent of the SAR image frame from which it was derived. These SAR-derived high resolution wind products are calculated from high resolution SAR images of normalized radar cross section (NRCS) of the Earth's surface. Backscattered microwave radar returns from the ocean surface are strongly dependent on wind speed and direction. When no wind is present, the surface of the water is smooth, almost glass-like. Radar energy will largely be reflected away and the radar cross section will be low. As the wind begins to blow, the surface roughens and surface waves begin to develop. As the wind continues to blow more strongly, the amplitude of the wave increases, thus, roughening the surface more. As the surface roughness increases, more energy is backscattered and NRCS increases. Moreover, careful examination of the wind-generated waves reveals that these surface wave crests are generally aligned perpendicular to the prevailing wind direction, suggesting a dependence of backscatter on the relative direction between the incident radar energy and the wind direction.
distribution 
                                            [
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "NCEI Dataset Landing Page",
    "mediaType": "placeholder/value",
    "description": "Navigate directly to the URL for a descriptive web page with download links.",
    "downloadURL": "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/SAR-Winds-RCM",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-steam"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Granule Search",
    "mediaType": "placeholder/value",
    "description": "Search for data granules belonging to this collection (a granule is the smallest aggregation of data that can be independently described and retrieved).",
    "downloadURL": "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/metadata/granule/geoportal/?from=0&size=10&esdsl=%7B%22query%22%3A%7B%22bool%22%3A%7B%22must%22%3A%5B%7B%22query_string%22%3A%7B%22analyze_wildcard%22%3Atrue%2C%22query%22%3A%22fileid%3ASAR-Winds-RCM.*%22%7D%7D%5D%7D%7D%7D#searchPanel",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-steam"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "THREDDS",
    "accessURL": "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/thredds-ocean/catalog/sar-winds/rcm/catalog.html",
    "description": "These data are available through a variety of services via a THREDDS (Thematic Real-time Environmental Distributed Data Services) Data Server (TDS). Depending on the dataset, the TDS can provide WMS, WCS, DAP, HTTP, and other data access and metadata services as well. For more information on the TDS, see http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/thredds/current/tds/.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-steam"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "HTTPS",
    "mediaType": "placeholder/value",
    "description": "Navigate directly to the URL for data access and direct download.",
    "downloadURL": "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/oceans/sar-winds/rcm/",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-steam"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "FTP",
    "mediaType": "placeholder/value",
    "description": "These data are available through the File Transfer Protocol (FTP). FTP is no longer supported by most internet browsers. You may copy and paste the FTP link to the data into an FTP client (e.g., FileZilla or WinSCP).",
    "downloadURL": "ftp://ftp-oceans.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data.nodc/sar-winds/rcm/",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-steam"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) website",
    "mediaType": "placeholder/value",
    "description": "Institution web page",
    "downloadURL": "https://www.noaa.gov/",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-steam"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "https://doi.org/10.1109/jstars.2013.2242848",
    "mediaType": "placeholder/value",
    "description": "Journal article.",
    "downloadURL": "https://doi.org/10.1109/jstars.2013.2242848",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-steam"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "https://doi.org/10.1109/tgrs.2012.2194157",
    "mediaType": "placeholder/value",
    "description": "Journal article",
    "downloadURL": "https://doi.org/10.1109/tgrs.2012.2194157",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-steam"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/0289529",
    "mediaType": "placeholder/value",
    "description": "Product documentation",
    "downloadURL": "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/0289529",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-steam"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "GCMD Keyword Forum Page",
    "mediaType": "placeholder/value",
    "description": "Global Change Master Directory (GCMD). 2025. GCMD Keywords, Version 21. Greenbelt, MD: Earth Science Data and Information System, Earth Science Projects Division, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). URL (GCMD Keyword Forum Page): https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD+Keywords",
    "downloadURL": "https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD%2BKeywords",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-steam"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "NCEI Contact Information",
    "mediaType": "placeholder/value",
    "description": "Information for contacts at NCEI.",
    "downloadURL": "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/contact",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-steam"
  }
]
identifier gov.noaa.nodc:SAR-Winds-RCM
issued 2024-02-22T00:00:00.000+00:00
keyword 
                                            [
  "0289529",
  "0290600",
  "0292414",
  "0293529",
  "0294740",
  "0295974",
  "0297014",
  "0298715",
  "0298716",
  "0299649",
  "0300409",
  "0301559",
  "0302269",
  "0303220",
  "0304016",
  "0304889",
  "0305892",
  "0306879",
  "0307726",
  "0308517",
  "0309252",
  "0310449",
  "0311351",
  "WIND SPEED",
  "SAR",
  "satellite data",
  "RCM-1 (RADARSAT Constellation Mission)",
  "RCM-2 (RADARSAT Constellation Mission)",
  "RCM-3 (RADARSAT Constellation Mission)",
  "Canadian Space Agency",
  "NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research",
  "NOAA Office of Satellite and Product Operations",
  "World-Wide Distribution",
  "oceanography",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/OSPO > Office of Satellite and Product Operations, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/STAR > Center for Satellite Applications and Research, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC WINDS > SURFACE WINDS > WIND SPEED",
  "latitude",
  "longitude",
  "time",
  "wind_speed",
  "SAR > Synthetic Aperture Radar",
  "RCM-1",
  "RCM-2",
  "RCM-3",
  "GEOGRAPHIC REGION > GLOBAL OCEAN"
]
landingPage https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/contact
language 
                                            []
license https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
modified 2026-01-05T00:00:00.000+00:00
publisher 
                                            {
  "name": "NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
}
references 
                                            [
  "https://www.noaa.gov/",
  "https://doi.org/10.1109/jstars.2013.2242848",
  "https://doi.org/10.1109/tgrs.2012.2194157",
  "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/0289529"
]
rights otherRestrictions
spatial 180.0,-90.0,-180.0,90.0
temporal 2007-12-14T00:00:00+00:00/2007-12-14T00:00:00+00:00
title NOAA high resolution sea surface winds data from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) on the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) satellites

data.gov

An official website of the GSA's Technology Transformation Services

Looking for U.S. government information and services?
Visit USA.gov