Aquarius: Seasonal Ocean Wind Speed Climatology from Satellite

Seasonal climatology data provides gridded ocean surface wind speeds at a 1-degree spatial resolution. This dataset is the official end-of-mission release (Version 5.0) from the NASA-CONAE AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite, which used three radiometers and a scatterometer to measure brightness temperature and backscatter for wind speed estimation. The data is derived from averaged measurements over seasonal time scales.

Use Cases

• Analyzing seasonal wind patterns over oceans based on gridded 1-degree resolution data.
• Validating climate model outputs for ocean-atmosphere interactions using satellite-derived climatology.
• Studying surface roughness corrections for salinity estimation, referencing the 1.26 GHz scatterometer backscatter measurements.
• Mapping long-term average wind speed distributions for renewable energy potential assessments.

Strengths

• Represents the official final public data release (Version 5.0) from the AQUARIUS/SAC-D mission.
• Provides multi-scale averaged data, including seasonal climatology from a satellite with a detailed instrument suite (three radiometers at 1.413 GHz and a 1.26 GHz scatterometer).
• Cross-platform presence on datagov and nasa_earthdata signals its importance and official status.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing: specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided by any source.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates between platforms (2026-03-13 on datagov vs. 2015-06 07 on nasa_earthdata) create uncertainty about data freshness and maintenance.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without details, requiring further investigation for use.

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, using push-broom aligned radiometers and a scatterometer.

Time Range

Seasonal climatology (time range of underlying data not specified)

Freshness

2026-03-13 17:02:02.550216 (from datagov, conflicts with nasa_earthdata date)

Geography

Global ocean coverage, with a total instrument swath of approximately 370 km (radiometers) and 390 km (scatterometer).