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    • CYGNSS Level 3 Ocean Microplastic Concentration Version 3.2

    Metadata Updated: September 19, 2025

    The CYGNSS L3 Ocean Microplastic Concentration V3.2 dataset is provided by the CYGNSS Science Team of the University of Michigan.CYGNSS was launched on 15 December 2016, it is a NASA Earth System Science Pathfinder Mission that was launched with the purpose of collecting the first frequent space‐based measurements of surface wind speeds in the inner core of tropical cyclones. Originally made up of a constellation of eight micro-satellites, the observatories provide nearly gap-free Earth coverage using an orbital inclination of approximately 35° from the equator, with a mean (i.e., average) revisit time of seven hours and a median revisit time of three hours.This dataset contains the version 3.2 CYGNSS Level 3 ocean microplastic concentration data record, which provides daily netCDF files, each file containing a gridded map of microplastic number density (#/km^2). Microplastic concentration number density is indirectly estimated by an empirical relationship between ocean surface roughness and wind speed (Evans and Ruf, 2021). User caution is advised in regions containing independent, non-correlative factors affecting ocean surface roughness, such as anomalous atmospheric conditions within the Intertropical Convergence Zone, biogenic surfactants (such as algal blooms), oil spills, etc. This product reports microplastic concentration on a daily temporal and 0.25-degree latitude/longitude spatial grid with 30-day, 1 degree latitude/longitude feature resolution, as constrained by the binning and spatial temporal averaging of the Mean Square Slope (MSS) anomaly (i.e., difference between measured and predicted ocean surface roughness for a given wind speed). Version 3.2 uses CYGNSS MSS measurements that are derived from updated v3.2 Level 1 scattering cross section data and has updated the parameterizations in the data processing algorithm to use v3.2 data correctly.

    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

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025
    Publisher NASA/ESSP/UMICH/CYGNSS;NASA/JPL/PODAAC
    Maintainer
    Identifier 10.5067/CYGNS-L3P32
    Data Last Modified 2025-09-11
    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 78245520-0017-477c-90cb-c8bf87fa4981
    Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
    Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
    Homepage URL https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/CitingPODAAC
    Old Spatial "CARTESIAN",{"NorthBoundingCoordinate":37.4,"WestBoundingCoordinate":-180.0,"EastBoundingCoordinate":180.0,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-37.4}
    Program Code 026:000
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash 70c7c6a53634e93ff129ec5dac32282a09d7108938b7f8bf9e1aa04e0e09cc60
    Source Schema Version 1.1
    Spatial
    Temporal 2018-08-01/2018-08-01

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