Aquarius V5.0: Monthly Rain-flagged Sea Surface Salinity

NASA and CONAE's Aquarius Level 3 dataset provides monthly, rain-flagged sea surface salinity (SSS) measurements at a 1-degree spatial resolution. The data originates from the AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite, which uses three radiometers and a scatterometer to measure brightness temperature and ocean backscatter for salinity estimation. This version 5.0 smoothed product is part of a suite of data averaged over daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal timescales.

Use Cases

• Monitoring global ocean salinity patterns based on gridded 1-degree resolution data.
• Analyzing seasonal and interannual salinity variability using the monthly averaged time series.
• Correcting sea surface salinity estimates for rain effects using the rain-flagging feature.
• Studying ocean-atmosphere interactions using brightness temperature and backscatter measurements.
• Validating and calibrating other satellite or in-situ salinity datasets.

Strengths

• Provides data from a dedicated satellite mission (AQUARIUS/SAC-D) developed by NASA and CONAE.
• Offers multiple temporal aggregations (daily, 7-day, monthly, seasonal) from a single instrument source.
• Incorporates a scatterometer for surface roughness correction, improving salinity estimation accuracy.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all platforms.
• The last update date conflicts between sources (2015 on NASA Earthdata vs. 2026 on Data.gov), suggesting potential metadata errors.
• Documentation on the exact 'other-license-specified' terms is not provided.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the Aquarius instrument's three radiometers (1.413 GHz) and a scatterometer (1.26 GHz).

Time Range

Monthly time scales (specific date range not provided).

Freshness

2026-03-13 17:29:08.485722

Geography

Global ocean coverage with a total cross-track swath of 370 km (scatterometer swath ~390 km).