Weekly polar-gridded Level-3 products of Aquarius L-band Normalized Radar Cross Section (NRCS) retrievals from the Aquarius/SAC-D mission. The dataset is a collaborative product of NASA and Argentina's CONAE, last updated in June 2015.
Use Cases
- Analyzing weekly trends in L-band Normalized Radar Cross Section (NRCS) over polar oceans.
- Mapping spatial patterns of sea surface roughness from the polar-gridded NRCS data.
- Correlating radar backscatter (NRCS) with other oceanographic variables like sea ice concentration or wind speed.
- Validating and calibrating ocean surface models using satellite-derived NRCS observations.
Strengths
- Data is processed to Level-3, indicating gridded and quality-controlled products.
- Provides weekly temporal resolution for time-series analysis.
- Covers polar regions, which are critical for climate studies.
Limitations
- Dataset is temporally stale, with no updates since mid-2015.
- Specific spatial resolution, row count, and data volume are unknown.
- Lack of column details limits understanding of ancillary variables.
Provenance
- Source
- NASA and CONAE's Aquarius/SAC-D satellite mission, hosted by NSIDC_CPRD.
- Collection Method
- Satellite remote sensing retrievals of L-band Normalized Radar Cross Section (NRCS), processed into weekly polar-gridded products.
- Time Range
- null
- Freshness
- Last updated in June 2015; update frequency is null.
- Geography
- Polar regions (likely Arctic and Antarctic).