Aquarius Level 3: Daily Ascending Sea Surface Salinity Satellite Data

Global sea surface salinity data at 1-degree spatial resolution, averaged daily from ascending satellite passes. This version 5.0 dataset is the official end-of-mission public release from the NASA and CONAE AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite mission, which used three radiometers and a scatterometer for measurement. The data was last updated on March 13, 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling global ocean circulation patterns based on daily sea surface salinity maps
• Studying the freshwater cycle and its interaction with climate based on gridded salinity data
• Calibrating and validating other satellite or in-situ salinity measurements based on the standard mapped image product
• Analyzing surface roughness corrections for salinity retrieval based on scatterometer backscatter data mentioned in the description

Strengths

• Official end-of-mission public data release (version 5.0) from a NASA-CONAE satellite collaboration
• Data is gridded at a consistent 1-degree spatial resolution
• Salinity retrieval incorporates surface roughness corrections from a dedicated 1.26 GHz scatterometer

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the AQUARIUS/SAC-D mission's three radiometers and scatterometer

Time Range

Daily time scale (product is one of daily, 7-day, monthly, and seasonal averages)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 13 14:51:25.755916; freshness should be verified

Geography

Global ocean coverage from a satellite swath of approximately 370 km (radiometers) and 390 km (scatterometer)