RSS SMAP: Monthly Global Sea Surface Salinity from Satellite

Remote Sensing Systems produces the RSS SMAP Level 3 Sea Surface Salinity Standard Mapped Image Monthly V6.0 Validated Dataset for NASA. This dataset provides validated, monthly-averaged sea surface salinity (SSS) data derived from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite mission, beginning on April 1, 2015 and ongoing. It includes parameters such as derived SSS with uncertainty, rain-filtered salinity, collocated wind speed, and reference data from HYCOM, with a global extent and approximate 40km spatial resolution.

Use Cases

• Monitoring long-term changes in ocean salinity for climate change studies based on the global, time-series data.
• Assimilating satellite-derived sea surface salinity into ocean circulation models based on the HYCOM ancillary reference data.
• Correcting for surface roughness effects in salinity retrieval using the collocated wind speed data.
• Analyzing regional salinity patterns and freshwater fluxes with the rain-filtered SMAP sea surface salinity variable.

Strengths

• Dataset is a validated product sponsored by the NASA Ocean Salinity Science Team, indicating a level of scientific review.
• Provides a continuous, global time series from April 2015 to the present, enabling long-term trend analysis.
• Version 6.0 includes specific bias corrections for early mission data, look-angle dependencies, and high northern latitudes.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are not provided on any platform.
• The exact spatial resolution is ambiguously stated as 'approximate' and the description is cut off.
• The license is listed as 'other-license-specified' without details, requiring further investigation for use.

Provenance

Source

Remote Sensing Systems (RSS), sponsored by the NASA Ocean Salinity Science Team.

Collection Method

Data derived from the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite mission L-band radiometer.

Time Range

April 1, 2015 - ongoing

Freshness

2026-04-09 22:54:11.696155

Geography

Global