The following message has been forwarded to all registered PO.DAAC users on behalf of the KNMI Scatterometer Team. Please direct all related inquiries to scat@knmi.nl.


Dear wind product user,

EUMETSAT plans to upgrade the ASCAT level 1 products on 18 August, see
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/News/ProductServiceNews/808475?l=en.
This change will also influence the wind processing and therefore an upgrade of the ASCAT global (OSI SAF, including coastal) and regional(EARS) wind products is planned for Tuesday, 16 August.

The following changes are foreseen:
Following user requests, the 12.5-km products (including EARS and coastal) will contain up to four wind solutions instead of one; in line with the current configuration of the 25-km products.The backscatter correction used in the wind processing is adapted to the new level 1 processor version 7.4.

The backscatter correction used in the wind processing will be done using the so-called NWP Ocean Calibration (NOC), see
http://www.knmi.nl/publications/fulltexts/calibration_and_validation_of_ascat_winds_5.0.pdf

This ensures more uniform wind characteristics across the ASCAT swath.

Due to the changes in the level 1 Kp computations, the wind quality control rejection rates will change slightly. Notably for the 12.5-km products somewhat less Wind Vector Cells will be rejected. The influence on the 25-km products is very small.

Please contact us on scat@knmi.nl if you have any questions.

Best regards,
Anton Verhoef

KNMI Scatterometer Team
http://www.knmi.nl/scatterometer/

For global wind products:
EUMETSAT Ocean and Sea Ice SAF
http://www.osi-saf.org/

For scatterometer processing software:
EUMETSAT Numerical Weather Prediction SAF
http://www.nwpsaf.org/

For timely ERS-2 and ASCAT regional wind products:
EUMETSAT EARS ASCAT service
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/What_We_Do/Satellites/EARS_System/

For other scatterometer matters contact:
scat@knmi.nl




--------------------------------------------------------------------
User Services Office
Physical Oceanography DAAC       Email:   podaac@podaac.jpl.nasa.gov
Jet Propulsion Laboratory       WWW URL: http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov

--------------------------------------------------------------------

To be removed from the GENERAL list, send an email to podaac@podaac.jpl.nasa.gov with your request.