Aquarius Level 3: Daily Ascending Sea Surface Salinity with Rain Flagging

Aquarius Level 3 sea surface salinity data provides gridded 1-degree spatial resolution salinity measurements averaged over daily time scales. This version 5.0 product is specifically for daily, ascending passes and includes rain-flagging. The data originates from the NASA and CONAE collaborative AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite mission, which uses a combination of three radiometers and a scatterometer to measure brightness temperature and ocean backscatter for salinity estimation.

Use Cases

• Modeling global ocean circulation patterns based on gridded daily sea surface salinity maps.
• Studying the impact of rainfall on ocean salinity based on the rain-flagged data product.
• Calibrating and validating other satellite or in-situ salinity measurements based on the standard mapped image data.
• Analyzing seasonal and interannual salinity variability in specific ocean regions based on the 1-degree spatial resolution.

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.
• Includes specific rain-flagging to identify and handle data affected by precipitation.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale statistical modeling.
• Data coverage is limited to the satellite's 370 km cross-track swath for the radiometers and 390 km for the scatterometer.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite's radiometers and scatterometer.

Time Range

Daily time scale averages are available.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 14:59:51.289458; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global ocean coverage within the instrument's swath.