NASA JPL Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center

nasa-podaac-aquarius_l2_sss_cap_v3

Aquarius CAP Level 2 Sea Surface Salinity, Wind Speed & Direction Data V3.0

The version 3.0 Aquarius CAP Level 2 product contains the official second release of the operational orbital/swath data from AQUARIUS/SAC-D mission based on the Combined Active Passive (CAP) algorithm. This Level 2 data set contains sea surface salinity (SSS), wind speed and wind direction data derived from 3 different radiometers and the onboard scatterometer. The CAP algorithm simultaneously retrieves the salinity, wind speed and direction by minimizing the sum of squared differences between model and observations. Enhancements in V3.0 include improved correction of reflected galactic radiation, geophysical model functions and cost function constraints to cross wind directions. A rain-corrected salinity data variable is also provided. This is based on collocation with SSMI/S and WindSAT data within 12.5 km radius and one hour time window of the center of Aquarius footprint. Each L2 data file covers one 98 minute orbit. 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.

podaac.jpl.nasa.gov

http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/AQUARIUS_L2_SSS_CAP_V3

Identified by : AQUARIUS_L2_SSS_CAP_V3

This dataset was released on June 26, 2014.

The time range for this dataset starts at August 25, 2011.

The spatial range for this dataset is -90° to 90° latitude, and -180° to 180° longitude. map (center)

This dataset uses data from an instance of the aquarius-l-band-radiometer instrument on the sac-d-aquarius platform.
This dataset uses data from an instance of the aquarius-l-band-scatterometer instrument on the sac-d-aquarius platform.

Also known as :

• dataset AQUARIUS_L2_SSS_CAP_V3 (podaac lexicon)
• datasetId PODAAC-AQUAR-2T1PS (podaac lexicon)