Aquarius V5.0: Ancillary Sea Surface Temperature Mission Cumulative Data

Aquarius Level 3 ancillary sea surface temperature data are derived from daily Reynolds NCDC 0.25-degree SSTs, regridded to a 1-degree spatial resolution. The data are provided at daily, 7-day, monthly, seasonal, and annual time intervals. This specific dataset is the mission series mean cumulative product for the ascending track, associated with version 5.0 of the Aquarius data release.

Use Cases

• Calibrating satellite salinity retrieval algorithms based on ancillary sea surface temperature.
• Analyzing long-term sea surface temperature trends at a 1-degree resolution.
• Correlating sea surface temperature with other oceanographic variables like salinity and wind speed from the Aquarius mission.
• Validating ocean model outputs using gridded, time-averaged satellite SST observations.

Strengths

• Data is processed to multiple temporal resolutions (daily to annual), supporting analyses at different scales.
• Derived from a well-established source, the Reynolds NCDC 0.25-degree SST dataset.
• Cross-platform presence on datagov and nasa_earthdata signals its importance and curation.

Limitations

• Column names and exact row counts are unspecified across all sources, limiting precise understanding of data structure.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (2026 and 2015) create uncertainty about data freshness and maintenance.
• License is ambiguously specified as 'other-license-specified' on datagov and is 'None' on nasa_earthdata.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing data from the Aquarius mission, processed from Reynolds NCDC SSTs using L2-L3 processing schemes.

Time Range

Mission series mean (cumulative), covering the Aquarius mission period.

Freshness

Last updated dates conflict: 2026-03-13 (datagov) and 2015-06-07 (nasa_earthdata).

Geography

Global, gridded to 1-degree spatial resolution.