Aquarius Level 3: Annual Ascending Sea Surface Salinity Gridded Data

Annual sea surface salinity data from the NASA-CONAE Aquarius/SAC-D satellite's ascending passes. The dataset provides gridded salinity measurements at 1-degree spatial resolution, derived from radiometer brightness temperature and scatterometer backscatter data. It is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling global ocean salinity distribution based on gridded 1-degree resolution data.
• Analyzing annual salinity trends from ascending satellite passes.
• Correcting salinity estimates for surface roughness using scatterometer backscatter data mentioned in the description.
• Studying the relationship between brightness temperature at 1.413 GHz and sea surface salinity.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a dedicated satellite instrument with three radiometers and a scatterometer for surface roughness correction.
• Provides a standard mapped image product at a consistent 1-degree spatial resolution.
• Specific instrument specifications are provided, including radiometer frequencies (1.413 GHz) and footprint sizes (e.g., 76 km x 94 km).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic or temporal bias inherent to the satellite's coverage and mission lifetime.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the Aquarius instrument on the AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite, a collaboration between NASA and Argentina's CONAE.

Time Range

Annual

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 15:00:05.983074; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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