Aquarius V5.0: Ancillary Sea Surface Temperature 7-Day Mean

Aquarius Official Release Level 3 Ancillary Reynolds Sea Surface Temperature Standard Mapped Image 7-Day Running Mean Data V5.0 provides processed sea surface temperature data used for calibrating satellite salinity retrievals. The dataset is derived from daily Reynolds NCDC SST data, regridded to a 1-degree spatial resolution to match Aquarius salinity and wind speed products. This version 5.0 release represents the final, public dataset from the concluded AQUARIUS/SAC-D mission.

Use Cases

• Calibrating satellite-based ocean salinity retrieval algorithms based on ancillary sea surface temperature data.
• Analyzing weekly sea surface temperature patterns at a global 1-degree resolution.
• Correlating sea surface temperature with concurrent Aquarius Level 3 salinity and wind speed products.
• Validating other SST datasets against a processed, mission-standardized product.

Strengths

• Represents the official end-of-mission public data release (version 5.0) from the AQUARIUS/SAC-D mission.
• Provides data at multiple temporal scales (daily, 7-day, monthly, seasonal, annual) though this specific product is the 7-day mean.
• Data is processed to a consistent 1-degree spatial grid matching other Aquarius L3 products.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as column names, row count, and file size are unspecified across all sources.
• There is a conflict in recorded freshness: one platform lists an update in 2026, while another shows 2015, casting doubt on data maintenance.
• The license is noted as 'other-license-specified' but details are not provided.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Derived from daily Reynolds National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) 0.25-degree SST data, regridded and averaged using the Aquarius L2-L3 processing scheme.

Freshness

2026-03-13 17:32:28.367944 (conflicts with a 2015 date from another source)

Geography

Global ocean coverage at 1-degree spatial resolution.