Aquarius Level 3: Seasonal Ascending Ocean Wind Speed Maps

Aquarius Level 3 ocean surface wind speed standard mapped image data provides gridded wind speed data at 1-degree spatial resolution. This seasonal, ascending pass product is version 5.0, the official end-of-mission public data release from the NASA and CONAE collaborative AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite. The data is averaged over seasonal time scales using measurements from three radiometers and a scatterometer operating at L-band frequencies.

Use Cases

• Modeling seasonal wind patterns over the ocean based on gridded 1-degree resolution data
• Analyzing air-sea interaction for climate studies based on satellite-measured brightness temperature and backscatter
• Validating numerical weather prediction models over ocean surfaces based on spatially averaged wind speed maps
• Studying surface roughness corrections for salinity estimation based on the integrated scatterometer data

Strengths

• Official end-of-mission public data release (version 5.0), suggesting a finalized and validated product
• Data is gridded at a consistent 1-degree spatial resolution for ease of use
• Derived from a dedicated satellite instrument with three radiometers and a scatterometer, providing multiple measurement angles

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download

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 mission timeframe not provided

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 13 14:41:04.367689; freshness should be verified

Geography

Global ocean coverage within the instrument's 370 km cross-track swath