Aquarius Monthly Sea Surface Salinity Gridded Satellite Data

Global sea surface salinity data is provided as monthly gridded maps at 1-degree spatial resolution, derived from the Aquarius/SAC-D satellite mission. This Level 3 product is the rain-flagged monthly dataset from version 5.0 of the Aquarius official release. The mission was a collaboration between NASA and Argentina's space agency CONAE, with the dataset last updated on the NASA platform in 2015.

Use Cases

• Analyzing global or regional monthly sea surface salinity anomalies and trends over time.
• Validating ocean circulation and climate models using satellite-derived salinity measurements.
• Studying the freshwater flux from major river plumes and their impact on ocean salinity.
• Investigating the relationship between sea surface salinity, rainfall events flagged in the data, and larger climate oscillations.

Strengths

• Data is from the official Version 5.0 release of the Aquarius mission, representing a processed standard product.
• Provides global coverage with a consistent 1-degree gridded format, facilitating spatial analysis.
• Incorporates a scatterometer for surface roughness corrections, improving salinity estimation accuracy.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, column names, and dataset size are unknown from the provided sources.
• Conflicting license information exists between platforms (unknown vs. 'other-license-specified').
• The temporal coverage (start and end dates) of the data collection is not specified.

Provenance

Source

NASA and Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE) via the Aquarius/SAC-D satellite mission.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing using three radiometers and a scatterometer for brightness temperature and ocean backscatter measurements.

Freshness

2015-06-07 12:45:21

Geography

Global