Global improved QuikSCAT weekly wind speed data and climatologies for 1999-2004 (NCEI Accession 0177404)

This data set includes land and sea ice mask information adapted from the AVHRR Pathfinder sea surface temperature (SST) v5.0 and the Optimally Interpolated SST version 2 data sets, respectively. Additionally, near shore pixels originally contaminated by backscatter from land have been filled by several methods, including simple median filling, an inverse-distance weighted mean, and an objective analysis technique that considers the spatial structure of the wind speed data.

The gap filling methods and QuikSCAT wind speed data were then evaluated by comparing with in situ wind speed measurements taken from near shore and open ocean buoys and marine weather stations. These data are in .HDF format identified by Julian date.