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Aquarius CAP Level 3 Wind Speed Standard Mapped Image 7-Day Data V5.0

Metadata Updated: April 10, 2026

Version 5.0 Aquarius CAP Level 3 products are the fourth release of the AQUARIUS/SAC-D mapped salinity and wind speed data based on the Combined Active Passive (CAP) algorithm. CAP Level 3 standard mapped image products contain gridded 1 degree spatial resolution salinity and wind speed data averaged over 7 day and monthly time scales. This particular dataset is the 7-Day running mean wind speed V5.0 Aquarius CAP product. CAP is a P.I. produced dataset developed and provided by JPL. The CAP algorithm utilizes data from both the onboard radiometer and scatterometer to simultaneously retrieve salinity, wind speed and direction by minimizing the sum of squared differences between model and observations. The main improvements in CAP V5.0 relative to the previous version include: updates to the Geophysical Model Functions to 4th order harmonics with the inclusion of sea surface temperature (SST) and stability at air-sea interface effects; use of the Canadian Meteorological Center (CMC) SST product as the new source ancillary sea surface temperature data in place of NOAA OI SST. The Aquarius instrument is onboard 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.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: See this page for license information.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date April 10, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date April 10, 2026
Publisher Aquarius Project NASA/CONAE, JPL;NASA/JPL/PODAAC
Maintainer
Identifier 10.5067/AQR50-3X7CS
Data Last Modified 2026-04-06
Category Earth Science
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 026:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id dd685a67-efda-406d-95d0-10cda93884eb
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
License https://www.usa.gov/government-works
Old Spatial {"EastBoundingCoordinate":180.0,"NorthBoundingCoordinate":90,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-90,"WestBoundingCoordinate":-180.0},"CARTESIAN"
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 8e8f8471a4d92c9e41e698b88367c5f40b35a2be8bf7fe6d81af9e58fda92b74
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial
Temporal 2011-08-26/2015-06-08

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