SASSIE: Airborne Microwave Salinity Data from the Arctic Sea Ice Edge

NASA's SASSIE project collected airborne microwave radiometer data to study how melting sea ice affects ocean salinity and temperature. The Passive-Active L-Band System (PALS) sampled the Beaufort Sea from August to October 2022, providing brightness temperature data at 1.4GHz gridded at approximately 2x2km resolution. This data was processed to derive sea surface salinity using the Klein-Swift retrieval model, supporting research on upper ocean stratification and ice growth.

Use Cases

• Modeling sea ice growth and melt processes based on derived sea surface salinity and temperature anomalies.
• Validating satellite-derived ocean salinity products using calibrated airborne brightness temperature observations.
• Analyzing upper ocean stratification dynamics near the sea ice edge from intensive in-situ and remote sensing observations.
• Studying radio frequency interference and wind-speed effects on L-band microwave radiometry in the Arctic environment.

Strengths

• Data is from a focused NASA field campaign with a specific temporal (Aug-Oct 2022) and spatial (~200km from ice edge) scope.
• Underwent several quality control steps to remove scan biases, radio frequency interference, and wind-speed dependencies.
• Sensor calibration was performed using special aircraft maneuvers and in-situ samples, supporting data reliability.

Limitations

• Column names and precise row/size counts are not provided in any source, limiting immediate understanding of data structure.
• License is inconsistently reported as 'other-license-specified' or 'None', creating ambiguity for reuse.
• Last update dates conflict between sources (2022-09 20 and 2026-04-09), indicating potential metadata synchronization issues.

Provenance

Source

NASA SASSIE project, POCLOUD organization.

Collection Method

Airborne remote sensing using the Passive-Active L-Band System (PALS) microwave radiometer, with in-situ calibration.

Time Range

August 2022 to October 2022

Freshness

2026-04-09 22:44:28.631823

Geography

Beaufort Sea, within approximately 200km of the sea ice edge.