Aquarius CAP V5.0: 7-Day Global Sea Surface Salinity

Aquarius CAP Level 3 Sea Surface Salinity Rain Corrected Standard Mapped Image 7-Day Data V5.0 is a satellite-derived oceanographic dataset from the NASA-CONAE AQUARIUS/SAC-D mission. It provides gridded, rain-corrected sea surface salinity (SSS) at a 1-degree spatial resolution, averaged over weekly intervals using the Combined Active Passive (CAP) algorithm which simultaneously retrieves salinity and wind speed from radiometer and scatterometer data. This version 5.0 incorporates improved geophysical models and uses Canadian Meteorological Center sea surface temperature data.

Use Cases

• Monitoring large-scale ocean salinity patterns and freshwater input based on weekly 1-degree gridded data.
• Validating and improving ocean circulation and climate models using satellite-derived sea surface salinity.
• Studying air-sea interaction processes using the simultaneously retrieved wind speed and direction data.
• Assessing algorithm improvements in the CAP V5.0 retrieval, which includes 4th-order harmonic geophysical model functions.

Strengths

• Data is produced by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) using a physically-based Combined Active Passive algorithm.
• Provides a specific spatial resolution (1 degree) and temporal averaging period (7-day running mean) for consistent analysis.
• Algorithm improvements in V5.0 are explicitly detailed, including updated geophysical model functions and a new SST data source.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all platforms.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between sources (2015 vs. 2026), casting doubt on data maintenance and freshness.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without clear terms for reuse.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Argentinian Space Agency (CONAE), with data developed by JPL.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the AQUARIUS/SAC-D instrument, using three radiometers at 1.413 GHz and a scatterometer at 1.26 GHz.

Time Range

null

Freshness

2026-03-13 15:05:46.860211

Geography

Global ocean coverage with a total instrument swath of approximately 370 km (radiometer) and 390 km (scatterometer).