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WindSat is a satellite-based polarimetric microwave radiometer developed by the Naval Research Laboratory Remote Sensing Division and the Naval Center for Space Technology for the U.S. Navy and the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Integrated Program Office (IPO). WindSat is designed to demonstrate the capability of polarimetric microwave radiometry to measure the ocean surface wind vector from space. It is the primary payload on the Coriolis mission, which is jointly sponsored by the DoD Space Test Program and the U.S. Navy (SPAWAR PMW-180). Spectrum-Astro of Gilbert, Arizona, built the spacecraft. The WindSat/Coriolis mission was launched on a Titan II rocket from Vandenburg Air Force Base on 06 January 2003.

In addition to providing the Navy with badly needed ocean surface wind vector measurements, WindSat also measures other environmental parameters such as sea surface temperature, total precipitable water, integrated cloud liquid water, and rain rate over the ocean. Furthermore, WindSat provides risk reduction for the NPOESS Conically-scanned Microwave Imager and Sounder (CMIS), which is the future operational microwave imager tasked with supplying ocean surface wind data. Risk reduction activities include supplying data for model and retrieval algorithm development; sharing technical lessons learned; and using WindSat data to develop CMIS calibration, data exploitation, and data assimilation applications.