Aquarius V5.0: Seasonal Ascending Sea Surface Salinity

Aquarius V5.0 data provides 1-degree gridded seasonal sea surface salinity maps derived solely from satellite ascending passes. This final mission release stems from the NASA-CONAE AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite, which used three radiometers at 1.413 GHz and a 1.26 GHz scatterometer to correct for ocean roughness. Its 370 km swath and multi-beam design offer a specific perspective on global ocean salinity dynamics.

Use Cases

• Monitoring seasonal changes in global ocean salinity based on 1-degree gridded maps.
• Validating ocean circulation and climate models using satellite-derived salinity data.
• Studying the freshwater cycle by analyzing salinity patterns from ascending-only satellite passes.
• Researching microwave remote sensing techniques for salinity retrieval, incorporating scatterometer roughness corrections.

Strengths

• Represents the official end-of-mission public data release (Version 5.0) from the AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite.
• Provides data at a consistent 1-degree spatial resolution, facilitating large-scale analysis.
• Derived from a sophisticated instrument suite combining three radiometers and a dedicated scatterometer for surface correction.

Limitations

• Contains only data from Ascending satellite passes, omitting the complementary Descending pass perspective.
• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all platforms.
• Update timestamps conflict between sources (2015 vs. 2026), creating uncertainty about data maintenance.

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 radiometers and scatterometer.

Time Range

Seasonal averages (specific years not provided).

Freshness

Last updated date is conflicting: one source indicates 2015-06-07, while another indicates 2026-03-13.

Geography

Global ocean coverage with a 370 km cross-track swath.