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Description

Aquarius Level 3 ocean surface wind speed standard mapped image data contains gridded 1 degree spatial resolution wind speed data averaged over daily, 7
day, monthly, and seasonal time scales. This particular data set is the mission series mean or cumulative wind speed product for version 5.0 of the Aquarius data set. 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.

Product Summary

Platforms
Aquarius_SAC-D
Instruments
AQUARIUS_SCATTEROMETER
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
1 Decimal Degrees x 1 Decimal Degrees
Geographic Region
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
2011-08-25 to 2015-06-07
Data Partner
Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA (NASA/JPL/PODAAC)
Concept ID
C2491757173-POCLOUD
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
1
Processing Level
3
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Surface Winds

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

NASA/GSFC/OBPG. (2017). Aquarius Official Release Level 3 Wind Speed Standard Mapped Image Mission Cumulative V5.0 [Data set]. NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/AQR50-3WCCE Date Accessed: 2025-12-14

Documents

USER'S GUIDE

ANOMALIES

DATA CITATION GUIDELINES

GENERAL DOCUMENTATION

Variables

Variables are a set of physical properties whose values determine the characteristics or behavior of something. For example, temperature and pressure are variables of the atmosphere. Parameters and variables can be used interchangeably. Variable level attributes provide individual information for each variable.

The Name in this table is the variable name. Fill value indicates missing or undefined data points in a variable. Valid range is the range of values the variable can store. Scale factor is used to increase or decrease the size of an object and can be used to correct for distortion. For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor
l3m_data l3m_data N/A float -32767 N/A 1
palette palette N/A ubyte N/A N/A 1
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