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Mission Status & Events

The Aquarius Project is Pleased to Announce the Official Release of Version 3.0 Aquarius/SAC-D Science Data
[09-Jun-14]

Find Out How the Measurement is Possible

NASA's first-ever salinity instrument, Aquarius, began collecting data late August 2012. In February 2013 a key milestone was achieved by the Aquarius Science Team with the release of the first validated (V2.0) Aquarius dataset.

The June 2014 public release of the V3.0 Aquarius dataset marks the culmination of a further year of calibration/validation efforts. This new version implements additional advances to the Aquarius salinity retrieval algorithm resulting in further improvements to the quality of the data. Enhancements include: corrections for ascending/descending orbit biases, and improvements in the salinity retrieval roughness correction (use of both V and H polarizations), modifications to the radiometer drift correction, Antenna temperature polarization coefficients, and flagging protocols used also in the production of L3 datasets. An adjustment for an observed SST bias in salinity retrievals has also been introduced; both SSS and adjusted salinity values are represented in the V3.0 data.

Key documents related to Version 3.0 from the Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive System (PO.DAAC):