Aquarius Level 3 data provides global, gridded 1-degree spatial resolution maps of ocean surface wind speed, averaged daily. This version 5.0 dataset is the official end-of-mission public release from the NASA and CONAE collaborative AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite mission. The data was processed and released by POCLOUD, with a last update recorded in June 2015.
Use Cases
- Analyze daily wind speed patterns and variability from the gridded standard mapped images.
- Validate numerical weather prediction or climate model outputs against satellite-derived wind speed observations.
- Study correlations between wind speed and other ocean surface parameters measured by the Aquarius instrument suite, such as brightness temperature and backscatter.
- Assimilate 1-degree resolution wind speed data into ocean circulation and wave models to improve forecast accuracy.
Strengths
- Official end-of-mission public data release (Version 5.0), representing a stable, final product.
- Data is gridded at a consistent 1-degree spatial resolution for global analysis.
- Derived from a three-radiometer instrument with cross-track swath coverage of approximately 370 km.
Limitations
- Temporal coverage is limited to the Aquarius mission lifetime, ending before the 2015 data release.
- Spatial resolution of 1 degree (~111 km) is coarse for studying mesoscale or coastal wind phenomena.
- Data freshness is low, with no updates since the mission ended and the last record update in 2015.
Provenance
- Source
- NASA and the Argentinian Space Agency (CONAE) AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite mission.
- Collection Method
- Satellite remote sensing using three push-broom aligned radiometers at 1.413 GHz and a 1.26 GHz scatterometer for corrections.
- Time Range
- Covers the operational period of the Aquarius instrument, culminating in the final V5.0 release.
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- Global ocean coverage within the instrument's 370 km cross-track swath.