UCAR/CU CYGNSS v3.2

The UCAR/CU CYGNSS inundation maps provide estimates of fractional surface water extent derived from NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS), a constellation of eight microsatellites launched in December 2016. Each satellite carries a Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R) receiver that measures L-band GPS signals reflected from the Earth’s surface. The inundation fraction is retrieved by assuming that the observed reflectivity within each 3 km grid cell represents a weighted average of the reflectivities of its inundated and non-inundated fractions, weighted by their respective areal proportions. The temporal range of UCAR/CU CYGNSS v3.2 data is 1 August 2018 to 31 December 2025, and each corresponding daily file contains five distinct variables: (i) 1-day inundation observations, containing retrievals for valid, directly observed grid cells (no spatio-temporal inter-polation); (ii) 3-day interpolated inundation, obtained by interpolating three-day observation aggregates; (iii) interpolation flags, distinguishing directly observed and interpolated grid cells in the three-day product; (iv) 1-day inundation anomalies, expressing departures of daily observations from the seasonal cycle; and (v) 3-day interpolated inundation anomalies ex pressing departures of the three-day interpolated values from the seasonal cycle. The dataset has a spatial resolution of 3 km and geographic coverage extending approximately from 38° N to 38° S, consistent with the CYGNSS orbital inclination.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
GCMD keywords
Dataset Center https://dataportal.igf.edu.pl
Maintainer data_steward@igf.edu.pl
Dataset PI
  • PI name: Clara Chew
  • PI name: Zofia Baldysz
  • PI name: Eric Small
  • PI name: Hannah Huelsing
Dataset Owner
  • Owner name: Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences Owner address: Księcia Janusza 64, 01-452 Warszawa
Licence Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Dataset status Complete
Activity type
    Access constraint Open
    Embargo
    Dataset modified
    Metadata created
    Quality statement Quality controlled by statistical methods
    Quality Editor
    • Editor name: Zofia Baldysz Editor email: zbaldyszfoo(at)igf.edu.pl Editor ORCID: 0000-0002-8398-6703 Editor Institution: Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences
    Spatial distribution
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    Start time
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    Dataset citation
    Dataset DOI 10.25171/InstGeoph_PAS_IGData_atmo-2026-023
    External resource
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    Project