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

    Metadata Updated: April 10, 2026

    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 sea surface 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.

    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

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date April 10, 2026
    Publisher Aquarius Project NASA/CONAE;NASA/JPL/PODAAC
    Maintainer
    Identifier 10.5067/AQR50-3DUDE
    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 a688e300-ace8-4790-8592-2f7290c09e29
    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 c8237d5d3b42b4a9a9ff5896516fa3496188f4afec6e6f4693920cdf9f68a1aa
    Source Schema Version 1.1
    Spatial
    Temporal 2011-08-25/2015-06-07

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