Wave / wind CFOSAT products

Types of dataset: Wave products from SWIM (Surface Waves Investigation and Monitoring) instrument and wind products from SCAT scatterometer on CFOSAT mission.

Contents:
- SWIM products include standard wind and wave parameters from nadir looking altimeters (significant wave height, wind speed) and spectral wave parameters from the off-nadir beams of the SWIM instrument (wave spectra and their main parameters wave height, dominant direction, dominant wavelength over the wavelength range [70-500] m). In addition the Normalized Radar cross-section (NRCS) is provided with a diversity of incidence and azimuth angles. Several levels of products are delivered: Levels 1A, 1B and 2 (L1A/L1B/L2) give the instrumental parameters including the complete list of all variables measured by the SWIM instrument and Level 2 Plus (L2P) is a simplified product containing the SWIM 1Hz and 5Hz SWH Nadir variable cross-calibrated with Jason-3 and buoys giving metrics comparable to other missions. They are provided to allow easy use in many different applications.
- SCAT products include the wind vector and the Normalized Radar Cross-section.
- Meteorological variables sampled at the location of SWIM acquisitions are distributed in dedicated files.
- SWIM Ice products are also available, see dedicated page

Use: marine meteorology, wave and weather forecast, ocean surface, climate.

Condition of access: The use of CFOSAT wave / wind product is described in the licence agreement

Description: Monomission satellite product.

Geographic coverage: Global

Format: NetCDF-CF

Documentation: Handbooks

Tools:

How to visualize and use the CFOSAT products
The product qualification with available reports
The CFOSAT product evolutions with the list of the evolutions of SWIM and SCAT processing chains
4 years of CFOSAT scientific results
Link to CFOSAT mission page

Recommendations to CFOSAT users on publication policy:

The first scientific publications on CFOSAT data will be authored by members who participated to the verification and CAL/VAL phase since the satellite launch. Two papers, one on SWIM and one on SCAT have been pubished:

Hauser D. et al., "New Observations From the SWIM Radar On-Board CFOSAT: Instrument Validation and Ocean Wave Measurement Assessment," in IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 5-26, Jan. 2021, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2020.2994372.
Liu J. et al., "First Results From the Rotating Fan Beam Scatterometer Onboard CFOSAT," in IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 58, no. 12, pp. 8793-8806, Dec. 2020, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2020.2990708.

It is recommended that all further publications based on CFOSAT data cite one of these first two publications (depending on whether they deal with SCAT or SWIM). The publications co-authored by several members and groups of the Joint Science Team is firmly encouraged.

All the publications and communications based on CFOSAT data have to be forwarded to CNSA and CNES (send to aviso@altimetry.fr who will transmit) and they all have to acknowledge CNSA and CNES as having ownership of the CFOSAT science products. The acknowledgement sentence is: “All CFOSAT data are provided by courtesy of CNSA and CNES [under science proposals XXX. (XXX=proposal id)]."

References: refer to the CFOSAT links and references
Copyright : 2019-ongoing CNSA/CNES/CLS.

Where are the data?

SWIM L1B, L2 and L2P SWH 1Hz and 5Hz Nadir products are available with quick access and for automatic chains via FTP or SFTP services:
- registration: please fill the form on the registration form and select the product "Wave / wind CFOSAT product"; the access will be opened after validation by the Service Desk,
- access: with dedicated credentials (login=email adress) directly via the FTP or SFTP accessible on your personal space MY AVISO+ (where you have the access to all your products).
SWIM ICE L1A and L2 products are available with quick access and for automatic chains via FTP or SFTP services:
- registration: please fill the form on the registration form and select the product "CFOSAT SWIM Ice products"; the access will be opened after validation by the Service Desk,
- access: with dedicated credentials (login=email adress) directly via the FTP or SFTP accessible on your personal space MY AVISO+ (where you have the access to all your products).
All SWIM products until v5 (except L2P SWH 1Hz and 5Hz Nadir) and all SCAT products are available via the archive catalogue Aviso+ Cnes Data Center (the V6 will soon be available to users)
- registration: other credentials are needed, please fill the form on top/right of Aviso+ Cnes Data Center (NB: Please note that the credentials are different for the Aviso+ CNES Data Center and the Aviso+ FTP service); the access will be opened after validation by the Service Desk,
- access: with dedicated credentials on Aviso+ Cnes Data Center
The SWIM CALVAL validation reports are available on the AVISO+ Web site here (no credentials needed).
- a summary of the CAL/VAL work carried out until summer 2019
- validation reports generated for every CFOSAT orbital cycles (13 days)

Products availability full description:

CFOSAT SWIM

Product	Distribution services	Delivery delay	Data period	Data used	File weight	Handbook
SWIM L1A	The Archive (until v5) is distributed via the catalogue Aviso+ Cnes Data Center (dedicated credentials are necessary, please register online)	4 days max	Apr 25 2019 - ongoing	one orbit per file	<2.6 Go per file	SWIM product simplified handbook SWIM product User Guide
SWIM L1B	Available via your personal space: MY AVISO+ (dedicated credentials are necessary, different from the AVISO+ Cnes data center, please fill the form on the registration form)	4 hours			<800 Mo per file
SWIM L2					<40 Mo per file
SWIM L2P SWH 1Hz Nadir NRT			Oct 12 2020 - ongoing		<150 Ko per file	SWIM L2P SWH 1Hz and 5Hz
SWIM L2P SWH 1Hz Nadir NTC		-	Nov 03 2018 - ongoing		<150 Ko per file
SWIM L2P SWH 5Hz Nadir NTC		-	Nov 03 2018 - ongoing		<1.3Mo per file
SWIM L2P SWH Box Off Nadir NRT		4 hours	Apr 25 2019 - ongoing		<6 Mo per file	SWIM L2P SWH off nadir
SWIM CALVAL validation reports	Summary of the CAL/VAL work carried out until summer 2019. Available on the AVISO+ Web site here	-	-	one report
SWIM CALVAL validation reports	Validation reports generated for every CFOSAT orbital cycles (13 days) Available on the AVISO+ Web site here	1 month max	Cycle 14 (Apr 19 2019) - ongoing	one report per cycle	-

CFOSAT SWIM ICE

Product	Dedicated page
SWIM Ice L1A	Please refer to the dedicated page
SWIM Ice L2	Please refer to the dedicated page

CFOSAT SCAT

Product	Distribution services	Delivery delay	Data period	Data used	File weight	Handbook
SCAT L1B	The Archive is distributed via the catalogue Aviso+ Cnes Data Center (dedicated credentials are necessary, please register online)	-	Oct 10 2019 - ongoing	one orbit per file	<1 Go per file	SCAT product specification
SCAT L2A					<35 Mo per file
SCAT NRT					<4 Mo per file

CFOSAT SWIM along-track AUX_METEO

Product	Distribution services	Content	Delivery delay	Data period	Data used	File weight
SWIM along-track AUX_METEO	The Archive is distributed via the catalogue Aviso+ Cnes Data Center (dedicated credentials are necessary, please register online)	Contains some meteorological variables sampled at the location of SWIM acquisitions	4 days max	Nov 3 2018 - ongoing	one pass per file	<1.5 Mo per file

Data