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Comparison of Wind Scatterometers

By JPL convention the SeaWinds instrument flown on the QuikSCAT satellite is termed "QuikSCAT", while the SeaWinds instrument flown on ADEOS2/Midori2 is termed "SeaWinds". The SeaWinds Tandem mission refers to combined QuikSCAT and SeaWinds data during the mission overlap period. The scatterometer mode data from the Earth Resource Mission 1 and 2 Advanced Microwave Instruments are referred to as ERS1 and ERS2 or as ESCAT. The Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) series of instruments flew on the ESA Metop-A/B/C platforms. The scatterometers operating on OceanSat-2 and SCATsat-1 are known as OSCAT1 and OSCAT2, respectively. Not shown is the Tropical Rain Mapping Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (TRMM-PR) which collected Ku-band surface backscatter at low incidence angles over a narrow swath.

SeaWinds/QuikSCAT, OSCAT, and HY-2A comparison

Scatterometer microwave band and orbits

Sensor Band Orbit Altitude Orbit InclinationOrganization
SASS Ku 810 km 106 deg NASA (US)
ERS-1/2 C 780 km 98.52 deg ESA (Europe)
NSCAT Ku 805 km 98.7 deg NASA (US)
SeaWinds Ku 803 km 98.6 deg NASA (US)
QuikSCAT Ku 800 km 98.6 deg NASA (US)
ASCAT A/B C 800 km 98.6 deg ESA (Europe)
RapidSCAT Ku 375-435 km 51.6 deg NASA (US)
OSCAT-1/2 Ku 720 km 98.28 deg  ISRO (India)
HY-2A Ku 971 km 99.34 deg SOA (China)