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Description
Gridded sea surface salinity data at 1-degree spatial resolution, averaged over daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal timescales. The dataset is the mission-cumulative, rain-flagged product from version 5.0 of the Aquarius instrument, a collaboration between NASA and Argentina's CONAE space agency. The data was last updated in June 2015.
Use Cases
Analyze spatial and temporal trends in sea surface salinity using the 1-degree gridded data across daily to seasonal timescales.
Validate ocean circulation and freshwater flux models by comparing them against the mission-cumulative, rain-flagged salinity maps.
Study the relationship between ocean backscatter (from the 1.26 GHz scatterometer) and sea surface salinity retrievals for roughness correction algorithms.
Correlate brightness temperature measurements (TH and TV at 1.413 GHz) from the three radiometer beams with in-situ salinity measurements.
Strengths
Provides data at four distinct temporal aggregations: daily, 7-day, monthly, and seasonal.
Salinity retrievals incorporate corrections using ocean backscatter data from a dedicated 1.26 GHz scatterometer.
Data collected from three radiometer beams with different incidence angles (29, 38, 46 degrees) and footprints, covering a 370 km cross-track swath.
Limitations
Data is from 2015 and represents a mission-cumulative product, not updated with recent observations.
Specific row count, file size, and sample data details are unavailable for assessing dataset volume.
Spatial resolution is 1 degree, which may be coarse for studying small-scale oceanographic features.
Provenance
Source
Aquarius instrument onboard the AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite, a NASA/CONAE collaboration.
Collection Method
Satellite remote sensing using three L-band radiometers and a scatterometer.
Time Range
Covers the full Aquarius mission period; specific start date unknown.
Freshness
Last updated in 2015; mission-cumulative product.
Geography
Global ocean coverage within the instrument's 370 km swath.
License information is unknown. Data is specifically the rain-flagged version of the sea surface salinity product.