SMAP-SSS V5.0: Near Real-Time Sea Surface Salinity and Wind Data

Global orbital swath data from NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite, launched in January 2015. The dataset provides sea surface salinity, wind speed and direction, brightness temperatures, and ancillary data from April 2015 to present, with a latency of about 6 hours. Observations are provided on a 25km swath grid with an approximate spatial resolution of 60 km.

Use Cases

• Monitor global sea surface salinity patterns based on derived SMAP SSS data.
• Assess extreme wind conditions for oceanographic studies based on wind speed and direction data.
• Study the Earth's hydrological cycle based on combined salinity and ancillary reference data.
• Analyze radiometric calibration and satellite performance based on brightness temperatures for each polarization.
• Model global coverage patterns based on the satellite's near-polar orbit and sun-synchronous nature.

Strengths

• Data is available with a latency of about 6 hours, enabling near real-time monitoring.
• Global coverage achieved in approximately three days due to the satellite's orbit.
• Dataset includes a broad range of parameters: salinity, wind, brightness temperatures, ice concentration, and quality flags.
• Enhanced calibration methodology improves absolute radiometric calibration and minimizes biases.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Due to a scatterometer malfunction in July 2015, collocated wind speed data is used for surface roughness correction.

Provenance

Source

Jet Propulsion Laboratory Combined Active-Passive (CAP) project, National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Derived from NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission using the V5.0 CAP retrieval algorithm.

Time Range

April 1, 2015 to present

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 01:22:00.964430; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global