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Mission Status & Events

Aquarius v4.0 Dataset Released
[03-May-16] The Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) is pleased to announce the availability of the Level 4 optimally interpolated, 0.5 degree, near-global, 7 day sea surface salinity (OISSS) product for version 4.0 of the Aquarius/SAC-D dataset. OISSS is a principal investigator produced dataset developed at the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST). The optimal interpolation (OI) mapping procedure used to create this product corrects for systematic spatial biases in Aquarius SSS data with respect to Argo near-surface salinity observations and takes into account available statistical information about the signal and noise, specific to the Aquarius instrument. The product covers the entire duration of the Aquarius/SAC-D mission: 08/26/2011 - 06/07/2015. Further details on the data processing can be found in: Melnichenko, O., P. Hacker., N. Maximenko, G. Lagerloef, and J. Potemra (2016), Optimal interpolation of Aquarius sea surface salinity, J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 121, 602-616, doi:10.1002/2015JC011343.

The OISSS product is described and discoverable via the PO.DAAC data portal. Access to these data is via PO.DAAC's public FTP site and via OPeNDAP, THREDDS. OISSS will also be available via PO.DAAC LAS in due course.

Documentation and a publication on the OISSS product are available from the PO.DAAC FTP site with associated reader software. General information regarding Aquarius/SAC-D mission is available from the mission website and also via PO.DAAC's Aquarius and salinity webpages.

Questions may be addressed to: podaac@podaac.jpl.nasa.gov or the PO.DAAC Salinity Forum.