PDS logoPlanetary Data System
PDS Information
Find a Node - Use these links to navigate to any of the 8 publicly accessible PDS Nodes.

This bar indicates that you are within the PDS enterprise which includes 6 science discipline nodes and 2 support nodes which are overseen by the Project Management Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Each node is led by an expert in the subject discipline, supported by an advisory group of other practitioners of that discipline, and subject to selection and approval under a regular NASA Research Announcement.
Click here to return to the Photojournal Home Page Click here to view a list of Photojournal Image Galleries Photojournal_inner_header
Latest Images  |  Spacecraft & Technology  |  Animations  |  Space Images App  |  Feedback  |  Photojournal Search  

PIA03892: Santa Ana Winds Over Los Angeles
 Target Name:  Earth
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  QuikScat
 Spacecraft:  QuikScat Satellite
 Instrument:  SeaWinds Scatterometer
 Product Size:  800 x 667 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  JPL
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA03892.tif (1.608 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA03892.jpg (154.9 kB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

High-resolution ocean surface wind data from NASA's Quick Scatterometer (QuikScat) illustrate the strength of Santa Ana winds that pounded Southern California this week, causing damage and spreading brush fires. The colored arrows represent various ranges of wind speed, which were still well in excess of 30 knots (34 miles per hour), even after reaching the ocean and weakening. Santa Ana winds are offshore and down-slope winds unique to Southern California that are usually channeled through mountain gaps. These Santa Ana winds extend more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) offshore before changing direction to flow along the shore.

The wind speeds and directions are retrieved from range-compressed backscatter data measured by QuikScat that has much higher spatial resolution than QuikScat's standard data products. Useful applications of high-resolution science-quality wind products derived from range-compressed backscatter have been demonstrated in two scientific papers: one on Hurricane Floyd and the other on Catalina Eddies. This is the first demonstration on near-real-time retrieval applications.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL

Image Addition Date:
2003-01-08