Aquarius Satellite Monthly Ocean Surface Wind Speed Data

Aquarius Level 3 data provides monthly averaged ocean surface wind speed mapped on a 1-degree global grid. This version 5.0 product represents the official end-of-mission public release from the NASA-CONAE AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite mission, which operated from 2011 to 2015. The dataset is derived from a combination of three radiometers and a scatterometer measuring brightness temperature and ocean backscatter.

Use Cases

• Analyzing monthly wind speed climatology and variability over global oceans using gridded data.
• Validating numerical weather prediction and climate model outputs against satellite observations.
• Studying correlations between surface wind speed and other ocean parameters like salinity, for which the scatterometer data provides roughness corrections.
• Investigating long-term trends in oceanic wind fields for climate change research.

Strengths

• Represents the final, calibrated public data release (Version 5.0) from the completed AQUARIUS/SAC-D mission.
• Provides data at multiple temporal scales, including daily, 7-day, monthly, and seasonal averages.
• Spatial resolution is clearly defined as a 1-degree gridded product, facilitating global analysis.
• Data originates from a collaborative NASA and Argentinian Space Agency (CONAE) mission, indicating a high standard of collection and processing.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, file sizes, and complete column names are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on license information: one lists 'other-license-specified' while others list no license.
• The dataset's temporal coverage is implied but not explicitly stated, though the mission ended in 2015.

Provenance

Source

NASA and the Argentinian Space Agency Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE) via the AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite mission.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing using three push-broom radiometers at 1.413 GHz and a 1.26 GHz scatterometer for ocean backscatter measurements.

Time Range

Mission duration from 2011 to 2015, with data averaged over monthly periods.

Freshness

2026-03-13 17:02:47.384901

Geography

Global ocean coverage with a total instrument swath of approximately 390 km.