Aquarius Satellite Sea Surface Salinity 28-Day Running Mean

28-day running mean sea surface salinity data is provided by the Aquarius/SAC-D satellite mission, a NASA and CONAE collaboration. The Level 3 product offers gridded, rain-flagged salinity at 1-degree spatial resolution, derived from descending satellite passes using three radiometers and a scatterometer for surface roughness correction. This dataset represents the version 5.0 official release.

Use Cases

• Analyzing temporal trends in global sea surface salinity using the 28-day running mean values.
• Studying ocean freshening or salinification events by mapping gridded salinity anomalies.
• Validating and calibrating ocean circulation and climate models with satellite-derived salinity data.
• Investigating the relationship between salinity, rainfall, and sea surface temperature using the rain-flagged product.
• Assessing spatial variability in salinity for biological and fisheries research.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a dedicated satellite instrument with three radiometers and a scatterometer, providing multi-angle and roughness-corrected measurements.
• Product offers a consistent 28-day running mean, useful for analyzing sub-monthly to seasonal salinity variability.
• Gridded at a uniform 1-degree spatial resolution, facilitating global-scale analysis and model comparison.
• Presence on multiple government data platforms (NASA Earthdata, Data.gov) indicates formal curation and archival importance.

Limitations

• Specific temporal coverage (start/end dates), total row count, and exact column schema are not provided in the sources.
• Sources conflict on license information, with one listing 'other-license-specified' and others as unknown or null.
• Data is limited to descending satellite passes only, which may introduce sampling biases compared to full diurnal coverage.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing using push-broom radiometers at 1.413 GHz and a 1.26 GHz scatterometer.

Freshness

2026-03-13 17:26:45.243491

Geography

Global ocean coverage with a 370 km cross-track swath, gridded to 1-degree resolution.