AMV-based Sea-surface Wind

AMV-based Sea-surface Wind data (ASWinds) derived from full-disk and target-area imagery are an ocean surface wind vector product. In its formulation, wind speeds are estimated from low-level Atmospheric Motion Vectors (AMVs) based on the strong correlation between AMVs assigned to the lower troposphere and sea-surface winds around tropical cyclones. ASWinds provides valuable information on wind distribution around tropical cyclones over the ocean, where observation data are particularly sparse. Although the accuracy of ASWinds around tropical cyclones has been verified, it is important to understand that their reliability for other regions, such as around extratropical cyclones, remains unverified.
    For further details and results of product validation, see RMSC Tokyo-Typhoon Center Technical Review (pdf, 2.4MB).

Real-time Monitoring

Up-to-date ASWinds images are available on the MSC website. The real-time monitoring page can be accessed here or on the image below.

ASWind monitoring image
ASWinds Monitoring Image

Data Dissemination (NMHSs only)

Gridded ASWinds data are provided to National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) via the JMA Data Dissemination System (JDDS) in SATAIDWIND format (binary), and can be displayed on satellite imagery using the SATAID (SATellite Animation and Interactive Diagnosis) application. ASWinds are produced from using Himawari-8/-9 low-level AMVs derived from visible (0.64µm) and infrared (3.9µm and 10.4µm) imagery. For more information, see the Himawari JDDS website (https://www.jma.go.jp/jma/jma-eng/satellite/jdds.html).

Sample of ASWinds and satellite imagery data
Observation area Sample data Remarks
Target area aswind_tgvs_201902250300.bin (60kB) VIS, 0.1 deg
aswind_tgir_201902250300.bin (23kB) IR, 0.1 deg
Full-disk area aswind_fdvs_201902250300.bin (751kB) VIS, 0.25 deg
aswind_fdir_201902250300.bin (707kB) IR, 0.25 deg
Full-disk imagery data
SATAID format
(65N-65S,70E-210E)
VS20190225.Z0300.gz (gzip, 8.6MB) VIS (0.64 µm)
IR20190225.Z0300.gz (gzip, 5.8MB) IR (10.4 µm)
  • SATAIDWIND (SATAID wind data) format (pdf, 414kB)
  • User's guide for displaying ASWind data in SATAID software (pdf, 1.9MB)
  • SATAID Service (WIS-Portal -GISC Tokyo website)

References