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High-Latitude Sea Surface Salinity

High-Latitude Sea Surface Salinity

Data Description

AqGSFC: Running Weekly Polar-Gridded Aquarius Sea Surface Salinity

 AqGSFC: Running Weekly Polar-Gridded Aquarius Sea Surface Salinity (SSS)

This dataset contains running weekly gridded SSS, processed using Aquarius level-2 end-of-mission SSS product (v5.0) as the input source data. Data were geophysically filtered by discarding measurements with land and sea ice contamination as well as retrievals measured during high wind speed conditions. Quality flags included in the Aquarius level-2 official release product were also utilized, taking into account only “severe” conditions. More details about the source data can be seen here: http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/SeaSurfaceSalinity/Aquarius. Bootstrap Sea Ice Concentration (SIC) data from the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) and Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS), also known as the SB2 product [Comiso et al., 2017] was also used to mask out SSS readings with SIC greater than 15%. Median filter was applied per beam to suppress random short-wavelength noise and to improve accuracy of measurements along the track.

Each file contains weekly averaged SSS from combined ascending and descending orbits, produced in he polar stereographic grid with 12.5 km spatial resolution and available from 25 August 2011 to 31 May 2015 for both the Northern and Southern High Latitudes.

AqGSFC SSS distribution in spring (31 May – 06 June, 2012) and early autumn (27 September – 04 October 2012) with se ice edge contour shown in red in the Nothern High Latitudes. 

AqJPL: Running Weekly Polar-Gridded Aquarius Sea Surface Salinity

 AqJPL: Running Weekly Polar-Gridded Aquarius SSS

Dataset consists of running weekly gridded SSS, processed using PI-produced Aquarius level-2 Combined Active-Passive (CAP) SSS product (v4.0) [Yueh, 2015; Yueh et al., 2014] as the input source data. Data were geophysically filtered by discarding measurements with land, sea ice, and surface roughness contaminations. Quality CAP flags were used and sea ice masking with SB2 product was also employed. Median filter was also applied per beam.

Like AqGSFC, each file contains weekly averaged SSS from combined ascending and descending orbits, produced in the polar stereographic grid with 12.5 km spatial resolution. The dataset is available from 26 August 2011 to 29 May 2015 for both the Northern and Southern High Latitudes. 

AqJPL SSS distribution in spring (31 May – 06 June, 2012) and early autumn (27 September – 04 October 2012) with se ice edge contour shown in red for the Northern High Latitudes.

AqNSIDC: Weekly Polar-Gridded Aquarius Sea Surface Salinity

 AqNSIDC: Weekly Polar-Gridded Aquarius SSS

 

This dataset contains weekly re-gridded SSS, processed using Aquarius level-3 Weekly Polar-Gridded product (v5.0) [Brucker, et al., 2015], distributed by the US National Snow and Ice Data Center. Details about the source data are discussed here: https://nsidc.org/data/aquarius. This product was re-gridded in the polar stereographic grid at 12.5 km resolution. Same smoothing technique and sea ice masking were applied as those used for the AqGSFC and AqJPL. Each file contains weekly mean SSS from all three beams and from both ascending and descending orbits. Temporal coverage is from 25 August 2011 to 28 May 2015 for both the Northern and Southern High Latitudes.

AqNSIDC SSS distribution in spring (31 May – 07 June, 2012) and early autumn (27 September – 05 October 2012) with se ice edge contour shown in red for the Northern High Latitudes. 

SmosBEC: Nine-day Experimental High Latitude and Arctic SMOS SSS

 SmosBEC: Nine-day Experimental High Latitude and Arctic SMOS SSS 

 

Running nine-day objectively analyzed Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) SSS product, distributed by Barcelona Expert Center (BEC) was re-gridded on to the polar stereographic grid at 12.5 km resolution. More details about the experimental SSS input source data can be seen here: https://bec.icm.csic.es/?s=sss. Each file of this product contains nine-day average from both ascending and descending orbits. This product is only available from 01 January 2011 to 31 December 2013. Also available below are gridded SMOS BEC OA L3 products in the Southern High Latitudes.

SmosBec SSS distribution in spring (31 May – 08 June, 2012) and early autumn (27 September – 06 October 2012) with se ice edge contour shown in red for the Northern High Latitudes. 

References

 Brucker, L., E. Dinnat, L. Koenig. 2015. Aquarius L3 Weekly Polar-Gridded Brightness Temperature and Sea Surface Salinity, Version 5, [SSS3b]. Boulder, Colorado USA: NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. Dataset accessed [2016-06-01] at http://dx.doi.org/10.5067/Aquarius/AQ3_TB.005.

Comiso, J.C., R.A. Gersten, L.V. Stock, J. Turner, G.J. Perez, and K. Cho. 2017. Positive Trend in the Antarctic Sea Ice Cover and Associated Changes in Surface Temperature. J. Climate,30, 2251–2267, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0408.1. 

Garcia-Eidell, C., J.C. Comiso, E. Dinnat & L. Brucker. 2017. Satellite observed salinity distributions at high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere: A comparison of four products, J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 122, doi:10.1002/2017JC013184.

NASA Aquarius project. 2015. Aquarius Official Release Level 2 Sea Surface Salinity. Ver. 4.0. PO.DAAC, CA, USA. Dataset accessed [2016-06-01] at http://dx.doi.org/10.5067/AQR40-2SOCS.

SMOS-BEC Team, SMOS-BEC Ocean and Land Products Description. Barcelona Expert Centre, Institute of Marine Sciences, CSIC. Barcelona, Spain. Technical note: BEC-SMOS-0001-PD. Available at http://cp34-bec.cmima.csic.es/doc/BEC-SMOS-0001-PD.pdf. Dataset accessed [2016-06-01]

Yueh, S.H. 2015. Aquarius CAP Level 2 Sea Surface Salinity, Wind Speed & Direction Data V4.0. Ver. 4.0. PO.DAAC, CA, USA. Dataset accessed [2016-06-01] at http://dx.doi.org/10.5067/AQR40-2TOCS.

Yueh, S.H., W.Tang, A.K.Hayashi, G.S.E.Lagerloef. 2014. L-Band Passive and Active Microwave Geophysical Model Functions of Ocean Surface Winds and Applications to Aquarius Retrieval. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING,51(9), 4619-4632

Contact Information

 For questions about the dataset, please contact:

Josefino C. Comiso 
josefino.c.comiso@nasa.gov
(301)614-5708

 Cynthia Garcia-Eidell 
cynthia.o.garcia@nasa.gov
(301)614-5299