Aquarius Mission: Ancillary Sea Surface Temperature Maps

NASA Aquarius Level 3 ancillary sea surface temperature (SST) data are derived from Reynolds NCDC daily SSTs. The dataset provides mission-cumulative SST maps, processed to a 1-degree spatial resolution and aggregated across daily, 7-day, monthly, seasonal, and annual intervals for use in satellite salinity calibration. This version 5.0 product represents the descending mission series mean.

Use Cases

• Calibrating Aquarius satellite sea surface salinity retrievals based on ancillary SST data.
• Analyzing long-term, mission-cumulative sea surface temperature trends at a 1-degree resolution.
• Comparing co-located SST and salinity patterns for oceanographic research.
• Providing gridded SST inputs for ocean and climate models at multiple temporal scales (daily to annual).

Strengths

• Data is from an official NASA mission release (Aquarius) and version 5.0.
• Provides multiple temporal aggregations (daily, 7-day, monthly, seasonal, annual) for analysis.
• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA EarthData signals its importance and curation.

Limitations

• Specific column names and data volume (size/row count) are not provided in any source.
• Metadata conflicts exist: the 'last updated' date differs significantly between Data.gov (2026) and NASA EarthData (2015).
• License is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without further details.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Aquarius mission.

Collection Method

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

Time Range

Mission cumulative (covers the Aquarius mission period).

Freshness

Last updated dates conflict: 2026-03-13 (Data.gov) and 2015-06-07 (NASA EarthData).

Geography

Global ocean coverage at 1-degree spatial resolution.