Ascat-B ocean calibration and wind product results

The EUMETSAT Metop-B satellite with onboard the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) has been successfully launched on September 17, 2012. ASCAT-B onboard Metop-B is identical to the already operational scatterometer ASCAT-A onboard Metop-A which was launched in 2006. KNMI has further developed an ocean calibration method for ASCAT-A, based on Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) wind inputs, the so-called NWP Ocean Calibration (NOC). When the corrections based on NOC are applied to MetOp-B backscatter data, also the MetOp-B wind retrieval quality improves to a level very similar to the ASCAT-A wind quality.