Aquarius Official Release Level 3 Sea Surface Density Standard Mapped Image Descending Monthly Climatology Data V5.0

Aquarius Level 3 sea surface density standard mapped image data contains gridded 1 degree spatial resolution density data averaged over daily, 7 day, monthly, and seasonal time scales. This particular data set is the monthly climatology, Descending seasurface density product for version 5.0 of the Aquarius data set. Only retrieved values for Descending passes have been used to create this product. Surface density estimates are based on TEOS-10 and derived using retrieved salinity from Aquarius and collocated ancillary SST (Reynolds OI 0.25 degree product). The Aquarius instrument is onbard the AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite, a collaborative effort between NASA and the Argentinian Space Agency Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE). The instrument consists of three radiometers in push broom alignment at incidence angles of 29, 38, and 46 degrees incidence angles relative to the shadow side of the orbit. Footprints for the beams are: 76 km (along-track) x 94 km (cross-track), 84 km x 120 km and 96km x 156 km, yielding a total cross-track swath of 370 km. The radiometers measure brightness temperature at 1.413 GHz in their respective horizontal and vertical polarizations (TH and TV). A scatterometer operating at 1.26 GHz measures ocean backscatter in each footprint that is used for surface roughness corrections in the estimation of salinity. The scatterometer has an approximate 390km swath.

Data and Resources

Field Value
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_@context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
catalog_describedBy https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
identifier 10.5067/AQR50-3DUDE
landingPage https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/CitingPODAAC
modified 2025-09-10
old-spatial [[{"EastBoundingCoordinate":180.0,"NorthBoundingCoordinate":90,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-90,"WestBoundingCoordinate":-180.0}],"CARTESIAN"]
programCode {026:000}
publisher Aquarius Project NASA/CONAE;NASA/JPL/PODAAC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 2e473928e764a270516ac08781ade6f673a57ba58e9869aa69fb252e371a3028
source_schema_version 1.1
temporal 2011-08-25/2011-08-25
theme {"Earth Science"}
Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • AmeriGEO
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • CKAN
  • GEO
  • GEOSS
  • National
  • North America
  • United States
  • earth-science-salinity-density-oceans-salinity
isopen False
license_id notspecified
license_title License not specified
maintainer Earthdata Forum
maintainer_email earthdata-support@nasa.gov
metadata_created 2025-09-23T15:48:53.234902
metadata_modified 2025-09-23T15:48:53.234909
notes Aquarius Level 3 sea surface density standard mapped image data contains gridded 1 degree spatial resolution density data averaged over daily, 7 day, monthly, and seasonal time scales. This particular data set is the monthly climatology, Descending seasurface density product for version 5.0 of the Aquarius data set. Only retrieved values for Descending passes have been used to create this product. Surface density estimates are based on TEOS-10 and derived using retrieved salinity from Aquarius and collocated ancillary SST (Reynolds OI 0.25 degree product). The Aquarius instrument is onbard the AQUARIUS/SAC-D satellite, a collaborative effort between NASA and the Argentinian Space Agency Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE). The instrument consists of three radiometers in push broom alignment at incidence angles of 29, 38, and 46 degrees incidence angles relative to the shadow side of the orbit. Footprints for the beams are: 76 km (along-track) x 94 km (cross-track), 84 km x 120 km and 96km x 156 km, yielding a total cross-track swath of 370 km. The radiometers measure brightness temperature at 1.413 GHz in their respective horizontal and vertical polarizations (TH and TV). A scatterometer operating at 1.26 GHz measures ocean backscatter in each footprint that is used for surface roughness corrections in the estimation of salinity. The scatterometer has an approximate 390km swath.
num_resources 29
num_tags 9
title Aquarius Official Release Level 3 Sea Surface Density Standard Mapped Image Descending Monthly Climatology Data V5.0