Over oceans, remote sensing techniques appear to be the most efficient way to monitor extreme events, as these low-pressure systems evolve in data-sparse regions. The CyclObs team is working on algorithms to retrieve geophysical parameters for such events using C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR).
In particular, SAR data are used to infer ocean surface wind speed from co- and cross-polarization channels acquired in wide swath acquisition modes now available with the Radarsat-2 and Sentinel-1 missions. The CyclObs website aims to present this unique catalog of measurements and comparison exercises against other satellite data (SMOS and SMAP), airborne data (SFMR), and best track data (IBTrACS, ATCF).

The CyclObs database is divided into three different subsets: Tropical storms (TC), Extra-Tropical storms (ETC), and Polar lows (PL).