Veery, A Flat Satellite Scatterometer for Global, Hourly Refresh of Ocean Surface Vector Winds

Care Weather is developing Veery, a small satellite scatterometer for monitoring ocean surface vector wind (OSVW) with state-of-the-art performance. Veery uses a rotating fan-beam C-band radar to provide a 1,050 km swath with 25 km resolution and more than 70% uptime. Veery’s dynamic range covers 3–27 m/s with speed errors below 1.6 m/s and directional errors below 11°, matching the performance of previous scatterometers from a much smaller satellite. Veery’s small size is enabled by a flat satellite form factor that vertically integrates the instrument and bus. That small size makes it affordable for deployment in a constellation capable of an unprecedented hourly global refresh. The Veery constellation will fill large gaps in the diurnal cycle to provide sorely needed clarity for numerical weather prediction and cyclone tracking, enabling more accurate weather forecasts and earlier warnings of some of Earth’s costliest natural disasters. Veery is being developed in partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United States Space Force (USSF), and others.