Aquarius Level 3: Monthly Ascending Ocean Surface Wind Speed Maps

Aquarius Level 3 ocean surface wind speed data provides gridded maps at 1-degree spatial resolution. This version 5.0 dataset contains monthly averages derived exclusively from satellite ascending passes, representing the official end-of-mission public release from the NASA-CONAE AQUARIUS/SAC-D collaboration. The data is generated from radiometer and scatterometer measurements at L-band frequencies to estimate wind speed over a 370 km to 390 km swath.

Use Cases

• Modeling global ocean-atmosphere heat and gas exchange based on gridded monthly wind speed data.
• Calibrating and validating other satellite wind products based on the specified radiometer and scatterometer methodology.
• Analyzing seasonal wind patterns over the oceans based on the monthly averaged time scale.
• Studying wind-driven ocean surface processes within the instrument's 370 km cross-track swath.

Strengths

• Represents the official version 5.0 end-of-mission public data release, suggesting final calibration.
• Provides data at a consistent 1-degree spatial resolution for global analysis.
• Derived from a dedicated instrument with three radiometers and a scatterometer for surface roughness correction.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Contains data only from ascending satellite passes, which may introduce diurnal sampling bias.
• Row count and exact temporal coverage are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

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

Monthly averages; specific date range is not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 13 14:43:34.884569; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global ocean coverage within the instrument's swath.