Aquarius Satellite 28-Day Mean Ocean Surface Wind Speeds

Aquarius Level 3 data provides global 1-degree gridded maps of ocean surface wind speed, averaged over 28-day running periods. This version 5.0 dataset is the official end-of-mission public release from the NASA and CONAE AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite mission. The data was last updated in the public repository in June 2015.

Use Cases

• Analyzing temporal trends in 28-day running mean wind speed for climate model validation.
• Mapping global spatial patterns of ocean surface winds using the 1-degree gridded standard mapped image product.
• Correlating wind speed data with other Aquarius-measured variables like sea surface salinity for coupled ocean-atmosphere studies.
• Assessing surface roughness corrections for salinity retrieval by integrating wind speed data from the scatterometer's 390km swath.

Strengths

• Data represents the official v5.0 end-of-mission public release, ensuring a stable, final version.
• Provides wind speed at multiple temporal scales including daily, 7-day, monthly, and seasonal averages.
• Derived from a three-radiometer instrument with footprints spanning a 370 km cross-track swath for comprehensive coverage.

Limitations

• Data collection ended with the mission, so the time series is static with no updates after 2015.
• Specific sample size (row count), file formats, and detailed column schema are not provided in the input.
• The 1-degree spatial resolution may be too coarse for studying small-scale or coastal wind phenomena.

Provenance

Source

NASA and the Argentinian Space Agency (CONAE) AQUARIUS/SAC-D mission, distributed via PO.DAAC.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing using three push-broom radiometers at 1.413 GHz and a 1.26 GHz scatterometer onboard the AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite.

Time Range

Mission lifetime; specific start and end dates are not provided in the input.

Freshness

Static final release; last updated in repository on 2015-06-07.

Geography

Global ocean coverage, with measurements from the satellite's 370 km cross-track swath.