Aquarius Satellite Ocean Wind Speed 28-Day Running Mean Gridded Data

Aquarius Level 3 data provides global ocean surface wind speed measurements averaged over a 28-day running mean. This official end-of-mission release (Version 5.0) contains gridded data at 1-degree spatial resolution, produced from the AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite, a joint NASA and Argentinian CONAE mission. The dataset is derived from a three-beam radiometer and scatterometer system measuring brightness temperature and ocean backscatter.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term trends in ocean surface wind speed using the 28-day running mean averages.
• Validating climate and weather models with spatially gridded wind speed data at 1-degree resolution.
• Studying the relationship between surface roughness (from scatterometer backscatter) and wind speed for salinity retrieval corrections.
• Mapping global wind speed patterns from the satellite's 370 km cross-track swath coverage.

Strengths

• Represents the official end-of-mission public data release (Version 5.0), suggesting a final, validated state.
• Provides data at a standardized 1-degree spatial resolution, facilitating global analysis and model comparison.
• Includes measurements from a three-radiometer system with footprints detailed at 76x94 km, 84x120 km, and 96x156 km.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unknown across all sources.
• Sources conflict on license information, with one listing 'other-license-specified' and others listing 'None' or 'unknown'.
• The temporal coverage and the specific date range for the 28-day running means are not provided.

Provenance

Source

AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite mission, a collaborative effort between NASA and the Argentinian Space Agency (CONAE).

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing using three radiometers at 1.413 GHz and a scatterometer at 1.26 GHz.

Freshness

2026-03-13 17:08:29.004250

Geography

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