Aquarius Weekly Polar-Gridded Products
of L-band Radiometer & Scatterometer Observations and Salinity Retrievals

Data Description

UPDATE: The products were migrated to the the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
No further update will apply here. Go to the new product page here for the latest data.

Weekly polar-gridded products of Aquarius L-band Brightness Temperature (TB), L-band Normalized Radar Cross Section (NRCS), and Sea Surface Salinity (SSS), along with sea ICE Fraction (ICEF), were produced on the version 2.0 Equal-Area Scalable Earth (EASE) grid. Each grid cell is 36 km x 36 km.

These data sets can be used to study the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, sea ice in both hemispheres, subarctic land where seasonal snow and frozen soil may exist, and the polar oceans.

Reference

Brucker, L., Dinnat, E., and Koenig, L. Weekly-gridded Aquarius L-band radiometer/scatterometer observations and salinity retrievals over the polar regions, part 1: Product description, The Cryosphere, 8, 905-913, doi:10.5194/tc-8-905-2014, 2014.

Brucker, L., Dinnat, E., and Koenig, L. Weekly-gridded Aquarius L-band radiometer/scatterometer observations and salinity retrievals over the polar regions, part 2: Initial product analysis, The Cryosphere, 8, 915-930, doi:10.5194/tc-8-915-2014, 2014.

Figure 1

Aquarius L-band TB at vertical polarization observed by radiometer 3 
(incidence angle 45.6°) during one week (Sep. 2013) over the Northern Hemisphere (latitude >50°).

Figure 2

Aquarius L-band TB at horizontal polarization observed by radiometer 1 
(incidence angle 28.7°) during one week (Sep. 2013) over the Antarctic ice sheet.

Figure 3

Aquarius polar-gridded NRCS at VV polarization observed by radiometer 1 
during ascending orbits over the Antarctic ice sheet (one week of Sep. 2013).

Figure 4

Aquarius polar-gridded NRCS at VV polarization observed by radiometer 1 
during descending orbits over the Antarctic ice sheet (one week of Sep. 2013).

Figure 5

Aquarius weekly-polar-gridded SSS using retrievals from the three beams 
and all orbits in the Northern Hemisphere (latitudes >50°).

Figure 6

Aquarius weekly-polar-gridded SSS using retrievals from the three beams 
and all orbits in the Southern Hemisphere (latitudes >50°).