Monthly and 7-Day Mean Level 3 Satellite Sea Surface Salinity

This dataset provides monthly and 7-day mean sea surface salinity (SSS) products derived from NASA's Aquarius/SAC-D mission, supporting oceanographic research and data quality monitoring. It includes Level 3 swath data interpolated onto a 1-degree grid, generated by NOAA NCEI and NASA teams between 2011 and 2015.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term salinity trends and variability
• Validating ocean circulation models with satellite observations
• Assessing data quality and calibration against in-situ measurements

Strengths

• Derived from NASA's Aquarius/SAC-D mission, ensuring authoritative sensor data
• Includes both monthly and 7-day mean products for flexible temporal analysis
• Processed by NOAA NCEI and NASA teams, offering reliable quality control

Limitations

• Dataset size and specific row counts are not provided, limiting pre-use assessment
• Exact column names and file formats are unspecified, requiring inspection after download
• Freshness may be limited as last update noted as 2015-06-04

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Collection Method

Salinity data created from Aquarius/SAC-D satellite measurements using the Combined Active-Passive (CAP) algorithm and interpolated onto a 1-degree grid.

Time Range

Covers the Aquarius mission period, likely between 2011 and 2015

Geography

Global coverage of ocean surfaces