BYU Daily Browse Images of SeaWinds Sigma-0 Measurements
The SeaWinds on ADEOS-II (Midori-II) scatterometer provides normalized radar cross section (sigma0) measurements of the Earth's surface. While originally designed for wind observation, scatterometers have proven useful in a variety of land and ice studies. To aid in the selection of regions and time periods for study, Brigham Young University (BYU) has produced this global sigma0 browse product. This product consists of spatial and temporal averages of SeaWinds Level 1B sigma0 values over one-day periods from 14 December 2002 to the present. This data set consists of sigma-0 browse images for the entire globe, the northern hemisphere, and the southern hemisphere. The global images are rectangular latitude/longitude grids covering the entire globe with a resolution of 5 pixels/degree, or about 22.5 km/pixel at the equator. It suits mid-latitude regions but distorts polar regions. Hence, separate hemispheric products are created for high-latitude regions. Those images are polar stereographic projections using a 70 degree reference latitude with a nominal grid size of about 22.5 km. The polar views include only measurements above a high latitude cutoff of 52 degrees. These data are available via FTP, on CD-R and on 8 mm tape.
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