The ASCAT ultra-high resolution wind product

An experimental ASCAT wind product on a 6.25 km grid size is presented and discussed. Operational production is not yet possible due to timeliness constraints, but these are expected to be solved with EUMETSAT’s new ASCAT Full Resolution Product. The ASCAT-6.25 product is obtained by extending the processing used for the operational ASCAT coastal product. Some examples of the ASCAT-6.25 product clearly show its potential for detecting mesoscale features. The noise properties of the ultra-high resolution ASCAT-6.25 product are estimated. It is shown that the maximum noise variance is 0.2 m2s-2 in the zonal wind component and 0.3 m2s-2 in the meridional wind component. The new ASCAT Full Resolution Product is expected to be issued in 2013, and an experimental version of the ASCAT-6.25 product will become routinely available for the user community in 2013/2014.