Aquarius Satellite 28-Day Sea Surface Salinity Maps

Gridded sea surface salinity data at 1-degree spatial resolution, averaged as a 28-day running mean from satellite ascending passes. The dataset is Version 5.0 from the Aquarius instrument, a collaborative NASA and Argentinian CONAE mission onboard the AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite. It was last updated in the platform in June 2015.

Use Cases

• Analyzing temporal trends in sea surface salinity using the 28-day running mean values.
• Correlating salinity patterns with other oceanographic variables using the gridded 1-degree spatial data.
• Validating ocean models by comparing simulated salinity against the satellite-derived rain-flagged product.
• Studying the impact of rainfall on ocean salinity using the rain-flagged data feature.

Strengths

• Data is gridded at a consistent 1-degree spatial resolution for global analysis.
• Incorporates measurements from three radiometers and a scatterometer for surface roughness correction.

Limitations

• Dataset version is from 2015 and may not reflect current ocean conditions.
• Specific row count, file size, and complete temporal coverage are unknown from the input.

Provenance

Source

NASA and Argentinian Space Agency (CONAE) Aquarius/SAC-D satellite mission.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing using three radiometers at 1.413 GHz and a 1.26 GHz scatterometer.

Time Range

null

Freshness

null

Geography

Global ocean coverage within the instrument's 370 km cross-track swath.