Aquarius RFI: Monthly Satellite Radio Frequency Interference Maps

Global monthly-averaged Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) data from the Aquarius satellite's radiometers and scatterometer. The dataset, produced by NASA, contains percentages of measurements corrupted by RFI for ascending and descending satellite passes, used to assess data quality for Sea Surface Salinity retrieval. It was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Generate global RFI contamination maps based on the Rad_RFI_percent_AscDes_AllBeams and Scat_RFI_percent_AscDes_AllBeams variables.
• Assess the impact of RFI on Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) retrieval quality over specific ocean regions.
• Analyze temporal trends in RFI by comparing monthly-averaged percentages across a series of months.
• Create custom visualizations for specific satellite beams or pass directions (ascending/descending).

Strengths

• Data is directly linked to reproducing official RFI maps available on the University of Maine Aquarius website.
• Includes an additional RFI flag for identifying anomalous brightness temperature measurements over land.
• Provides data for all combinations of satellite beams and pass directions (ascending/descending).

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.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Derived from RFI detection algorithms applied to measurements from the Aquarius satellite radiometers and scatterometer.

Time Range

Monthly averages; specific date range is not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 14:37:34.777072; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage from satellite passes.