Evaluation of marine vector winds observed by rapidscat on the international space station using statistical distribution

Statistical distribution of marine surface wind speeds and directions observed by RapidScat (RSCAT) on the International Space Station (ISS) over the global oceans were assessed to validate the vector wind products. Comparisons with buoy data and assessments of global histograms of wind speeds and directions showed that quality of the wind data observed by RSCAT is comparable to that of the previous scatterometer missions. It is confirmed that systematic errors in the wind speed and direction were not significant.