Mission-cumulative gridded sea surface salinity data at 1-degree spatial resolution, averaged across daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal timescales. The dataset is Version 5.0 from the Aquarius instrument onboard the NASA/CONAE AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite, last updated in June 2015.
Use Cases
- Analyzing long-term mean sea surface salinity patterns from the mission-cumulative product.
- Comparing salinity variability across daily, 7-day, monthly, and seasonal temporal averages.
- Validating ocean models using gridded 1-degree resolution salinity maps.
- Investigating the relationship between brightness temperature (TH, TV at 1.413 GHz) and derived salinity estimates.
- Applying surface roughness corrections using the co-located 1.26 GHz scatterometer backscatter data.
Strengths
- 1-degree spatial resolution for global analysis
- Multiple temporal averages: daily, 7-day, monthly, seasonal
Limitations
- Data collection ended with the Aquarius mission, last updated in 2015
- Specific row count, sample size, and geographic bias details are unknown
Provenance
- Source
- NASA and Argentinian Space Agency (CONAE) Aquarius/SAC-D satellite mission.
- Collection Method
- Satellite remote sensing via three radiometers and a scatterometer measuring brightness temperature and ocean backscatter.
- Time Range
- Cumulative mission period (specific dates unknown).
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- Global ocean coverage within the instrument's 370 km cross-track swath.