Aquarius Seasonal Descending Sea Surface Salinity Gridded Data

Aquarius Level 3 seasonal sea surface salinity data provides gridded 1-degree spatial resolution measurements, rain-flagged and derived from descending satellite passes. This version 5.0 product results from a NASA and Argentinian CONAE collaboration using the AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite's three radiometers and scatterometer. The dataset offers global ocean salinity estimates averaged over seasonal timescales.

Use Cases

• Analyzing seasonal variability in global ocean salinity using the 1-degree gridded data.
• Correcting sea surface salinity estimates for rain effects using the rain-flagged data product.
• Studying ocean surface roughness corrections via the collocated scatterometer backscatter measurements.
• Validating ocean models and other salinity data sources against this satellite-derived standard mapped image product.
• Investigating large-scale oceanographic features and freshwater fluxes using seasonal salinity averages.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a standard mapped image format with a consistent 1-degree spatial resolution.
• Salinity retrievals are corrected for surface roughness using a dedicated 1.26 GHz scatterometer.
• Product is specifically rain-flagged to improve accuracy in precipitation-affected regions.
• Represents a collaborative, calibrated effort between NASA and CONAE using a dedicated satellite instrument.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, file sizes, and complete column schemas are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on license information, with one listing 'other-license-specified' and others listing unknown or none.
• Data is limited to descending satellite passes only, not including ascending passes.

Provenance

Source

NASA and the Argentinian Space Agency Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE).

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the Aquarius instrument on the AQUARIUS/SAC-D platform, processed to Level 3 standard mapped images.

Freshness

2026-03-13 17:25:01.209987

Geography

Global ocean coverage.