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    • CYGNSS Level 2 Ocean Surface Heat Flux Science Data Record Version 3.2

    Metadata Updated: April 10, 2026

    The CYGNSS level 2 ocean surface heat flux science data record version 3.2 dataset is provided as a service to the oceanographic and meteorological research communities on behalf of the CYGNSS Science Team in direct collaboration with the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) Mission. CYGNSS was launched on 15 December 2016, it is a NASA Earth System Science Pathfinder Mission that was launched with the purpose of collecting the first frequent space‐based measurements of surface wind speeds in the inner core of tropical cyclones. Originally made up of a constellation of eight micro-satellites, the observatories provide nearly gap-free Earth coverage using an orbital inclination of approximately 35° from the equator, with a mean (i.e., average) revisit time of seven hours and a median revisit time of three hours.

    This dataset provides time-tagged and geolocated ocean surface heat flux parameters with 25x25 kilometer footprint resolution from the Delay Doppler Mapping Instrument (DDMI) aboard the CYGNSS satellite constellation. The reported sample locations are determined by the specular points corresponding to the Delay Doppler Maps (DDMs). Version 3.2 uses CYGNSS Level 2 (L2) Science Data Record (SDR) Version 3.2 surface wind speeds and ECMWF Reanalysis, Version 5 (ERA5). The Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE) algorithm is what is used in this dataset to estimate the latent and sensible heat fluxes and their respective transfer coefficients. While COARE's initial intentions were for low to moderate wind speeds, the version used for this product, COARE 3.5, has been verified with direct in situ flux measurements for wind speeds up to 25 m/s. As CYGNSS does not provide air/sea temperature, humidity, surface pressure or density, the producer of this dataset obtains these values from this dataset obtains these values from ERA5. This dataset is made available from 1 August 2018 to present with an approximate 1 week latency in the netCDF-4 formatted data files, where each file contains data within a 24-hour UTC period from a combination of up to 8 unique CYGNSS spacecraft. More information on CYGNSS can be found on the CYGNSS mission page.

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: See this page for license information.

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date April 10, 2026

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from NASA Data.json

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date April 10, 2026
    Publisher NASA/JPL/PODAAC;NASA/ESSP/UMICH/CYGNSS
    Maintainer
    Identifier 10.5067/CYGNS-L2H32
    Data Last Modified 2026-04-06
    Category Earth Science
    Public Access Level public
    Bureau Code 026:00
    Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Harvest Object Id 5a5d2633-7fb8-4c33-afc8-e9599e375652
    Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
    Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
    License https://www.usa.gov/government-works
    Old Spatial "CARTESIAN",{"NorthBoundingCoordinate":39.8,"WestBoundingCoordinate":-180.0,"EastBoundingCoordinate":180.0,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-39.8}
    Program Code 026:000
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash 95ff07edc2532f52569b4b27f8a0bf9386c5cb3015982ab554a2fae5d7060676
    Source Schema Version 1.1
    Spatial

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