Aquarius Satellite Monthly Sea Surface Salinity Maps

Three radiometers aboard the NASA-CONAE AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite measured brightness temperature at 1.413 GHz to produce this gridded, 1-degree resolution map of global ocean salinity. This version 5.0 dataset represents the official end-of-mission public release, providing monthly averaged salinity values specifically from descending satellite passes. The data was last updated in the NASA Earthdata system in June 2015.

Use Cases

• Analyzing monthly sea surface salinity anomalies and trends from the gridded 1-degree maps.
• Validating ocean circulation models by comparing simulated salinity fields against these satellite observations.
• Studying the relationship between sea surface salinity and brightness temperature measurements from the three radiometer beams.
• Investigating surface roughness corrections for salinity retrieval using the collocated 1.26 GHz scatterometer backscatter data.

Strengths

• Provides global coverage with a 370 km cross-track swath from the satellite instrument.
• Salinity values are derived from three separate radiometer beams at 29, 38, and 46-degree incidence angles for redundancy.
• Represents the official, final version 5.0 data release from the AQUARIUS/SAC-D mission.

Limitations

• Data is temporally stale, with the last update recorded in 2015 following the mission's end.
• Product uses only descending satellite passes, potentially missing diurnal cycle effects captured by ascending passes.
• Spatial resolution is coarse at 1 degree, limiting analysis of small-scale ocean features.

Provenance

Source

NASA and the Argentinian Space Agency (CONAE) AQUARIUS/SAC-D mission.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing using a trio of L-band radiometers and a scatterometer for corrections.

Time Range

Mission duration (not specified in input), data product is monthly averages.

Geography

Global ocean coverage.