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Aquarius CAP Level 3 Wind Speed Standard Mapped Image Monthly Data V5.0

Metadata Updated: September 19, 2025

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 monthly 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: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025
Publisher Aquarius Project NASA/CONAE, JPL;NASA/JPL/PODAAC
Maintainer
Identifier 10.5067/AQR50-3XMCS
Data Last Modified 2025-09-10
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 72939b7f-b1a0-4d91-a715-be3070c5a4e4
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/CitingPODAAC
Old Spatial {"EastBoundingCoordinate":180.0,"NorthBoundingCoordinate":90,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-90,"WestBoundingCoordinate":-180.0},"CARTESIAN"
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash c38bf9d1bcd09a6aa1421caed3e972be8f5f5fc8bd807732e6c623faa8924819
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial
Temporal 2011-09-01/2011-09-01

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