Operational Utilization of High Resolution Ocean Surface Wind Vectors (25km or Better) in the Marine Forecasting Environment

The work proposed here seeks to exploit currently and soon to be available satellite ocean surface vector wind data in the operational weather forecasting environment. This work will build upon an ongoing effort to quantify the impacts of QuikSCAT ocean vector wind data in the operational short-term warnings and forecasts issued by the NWS Ocean Prediction Center (OPC), and extends the effort to include the NWS Tropical Prediction Center and OCENS, Inc., a small company specializing in ocean and weather monitoring tools and services for the commercial and recreational marine users. In addition to the standard 25km wind vector products from QuikSCAT, this effort will also investigate the impacts of higher spatial resolution wind vector products (12.5km and higher) and the wind vector retrieval capabilities of WindSAT, a polarimetric microwave radiometer. Prepared in cooperation with Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Washington, DC, and Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. Prepared in collaboration with OCENS, Inc., Seattle, WA. The original document contains color images.