Updates to the CYGNSS Ocean Surface Heat Flux Product

Ocean surface heat fluxes play a significant role in the development of various weather and climate phenomena at various spatial and temporal scales. The initial development of the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) Ocean Surface Heat Flux Product, shortly after the satellite mission began, became a valuable tool for analyzing and observing latent and sensible heat fluxes over the tropical and subtropical oceans, aiding in analyzing their impact on tropical and extratropical cyclones, tropical convection, atmospheric rivers, and more. While in-situ measurements from buoys and flux towers remain the preferred observational tool and standard for estimating ocean surface heat fluxes, satellite products like CYGNSS can fill gaps where in-situ observations are lacking and provide higher spatial resolution observations than reanalysis datasets. This paper describes the updates and changes made to the CYGNSS Fluxes since its initial development, how the current dataset compares to in situ data, and CYGNSS’s long-term observations of ocean surface heat fluxes over the tropical and subtropical oceans.