SSMIS F17 Ocean Products are now available in a recalibrated Version-7.
A small change in brightness temperatures (~0.1 deg K) was made which results in
small changes to the ocean products (for instance wind speed changed by about 0.1 m/s).
The previous version-7 files (dated October 2010 to May 2011) are now referred to as Version-7beta.
Please be sure to only use F17 files with dates of August 2011 onward. The reprocessing was completed
to improve the intercalibration between Version-7 WindSat, AMSR-E and F13 SSM/I data products.
The F16 satellite data will be reprocessed at a future time.
SSM/I F8, F10, F11, F13, F14 and F15 remain at Version-6 while V7 is in development.
Version-7 changes relative to V6:
vapor
vapor values between 50-60 mm increased by ~1% vapor values greater than 60 mm increased by ~2-3%
cloud
cloud water values range from -0.05 to 2.45 mm (cloud data format has changed)
rain
global mean rain rates increased by about 16% (mostly due to changes in the extratropical values)