Aquarius: Daily Descending Sea Surface Salinity Satellite Data

Global sea surface salinity data at 1-degree spatial resolution, produced daily from the Aquarius/SAC-D satellite. The dataset is a collaborative effort between NASA and Argentina's CONAE, using a combination of three radiometers and a scatterometer for measurement. This version 5.0 product is rain-flagged and focuses on descending orbit data.

Use Cases

• Modeling ocean circulation and freshwater fluxes based on daily gridded sea surface salinity.
• Studying the impact of rainfall on ocean salinity using the rain-flagged data product.
• Calibrating and validating other salinity models or satellite retrievals based on the described multi-instrument measurement approach.
• Analyzing seasonal and interannual salinity variations based on the availability of daily, 7-day, monthly, and seasonal averaged data.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a dedicated satellite instrument suite with three radiometers and a scatterometer for surface roughness correction.
• Provides daily salinity maps at a consistent 1-degree spatial resolution.
• Produced through a formal collaboration between NASA and the Argentinian Space Agency (CONAE).
• Includes multiple temporal aggregations (daily, 7-day, monthly, seasonal) as mentioned in the description.

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 ML projects.
• The satellite's swath width is approximately 370-390 km, which may limit complete daily global coverage.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the Aquarius/SAC-D spacecraft's radiometers and scatterometer.

Time Range

Daily temporal resolution.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 14:58:01.718382; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global ocean coverage.