Aquarius V5.0: Seasonal Climatology of Ancillary Sea Surface Temperature

Seasonal climatology data provides ancillary sea surface temperature (SST) used for calibrating the Aquarius satellite's salinity retrieval. The data are derived from daily Reynolds NCDC SSTs, regridded and averaged to a 1-degree spatial resolution to match Aquarius Level 3 salinity and wind speed products. This dataset represents the official end-of-mission public release (version 5.0) from the AQUARIUS/SAC-D mission.

Use Cases

• Calibrating satellite salinity retrieval algorithms based on ancillary sea surface temperature data.
• Analyzing seasonal climatology patterns of sea surface temperature at a 1-degree resolution.
• Validating ocean model outputs against a gridded, satellite-era SST climatology.
• Studying the relationship between sea surface temperature and ocean salinity for climate research.

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) and a consistent 1-degree spatial resolution.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low: specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided on any platform.
• Conflicting freshness information exists: one source lists a last updated date in 2026, while another lists 2015, suggesting potential metadata errors.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

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

Time Range

null

Freshness

2026-03-13 (from datagov), but conflicting with 2015-06-07 (from nasa_earthdata).

Geography

Global ocean coverage at 1-degree spatial resolution.