Satellite-derived sea surface winds (SSWs) and atmospheric motion vectors (AMVs) over the global ocean, particularly including the areas in and around tropical cyclones (TCs), have been provided in a real-time and continuous manner. More and better information is now derived from technologically improved multiple satellite missions and wind retrieving techniques. The status and prospects of key SSW products retrieved from scatterometers, passive microwave radiometers, synthetic aperture radar, and altimeters as well as AMVs derived by tracking features from multiple geostationary satellites are reviewed here. The quality and error characteristics, limitations, and challenges of satellite wind observations described in the literature, which need to be carefully considered to apply the observations for both operational and scientific uses, i.e., assimilation in numerical weather forecasting, are also described. Additionally, ongoing efforts toward merging them, particularly for monitoring three-dimensional TC wind fields in a real-time and continuous manner and for providing global profiles of high-quality wind observations with the new mission are introduced. Future research is recommended to develop plans for providing more and better SSW and AMV products in a real-time and continuous manner from existing and new missions.

Wildfires are recently increasing in frequencies and intensities worldwide. Hence, reliable and continuous monitoring of sudden occurrences of wildfire is demanded, and geostationary meteorological satellites are an alternative to detection of wildfire in large areas. We currently have two geostationary meteorological satellites for the Korean Peninsula: the Korean COMS(Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite) and the Japanese MTSAT(Multifunctional Transport Satellite). However, neither of them provides satellite products for wildfire detection although the MODIS(Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on polar-orbiting satellites has been operated for wildfire detection for a decade. In this study, we applied the MODIS algorithm for wildfire detection to the COMS and the MTSAT in order to evaluate the detection performances for South Korea. Both satellites were successful in detection of big fires, but the COMS was better in detecting small fires because of its higher saturation temperature of 350 K approx. at 4-μm band. The comparison results will be informative for an emergency plan of COMS and for the preparation of next-generation geostationary meteorological satellite.