RSS SMAP Level 2C Sea Surface Salinity NRT V6.0 Validated Dataset

Description

The SMAP-SSS level 2C near real-time (NRT) V6.0 dataset produced by the Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) and sponsored by the NASA Ocean Salinity Science Team, is a validated product that provides near real-time orbital/swath data on sea surface salinity (SSS) derived from the NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission. SMAP, launched on January 31, 2015, was initially designed to measure and map Earth's soil moisture and freeze/thaw state to better understand terrestrial water, carbon and energy cycles, and has been adapted to measure ocean SSS and ocean wind speed using its passive microwave instrument. The SMAP instrument is in a near polar orbiting, sun synchronous orbit with a nominal 8 day repeat cycle.

The dataset includes derived SMAP SSS, SSS uncertainty using the NRT SMAP Salinity Retrieval Algorithm, top of atmosphere brightness temperature (TB), wind speed and direction data for extreme winds, and other all necessary ancillary data and the results of all intermediate steps. The observations are global, provided on a 0.25° fixed Earth grid with an approximate spatial resolution of 70 km. The major changes in Version 6.0 from Version 5.0 are: (1) Removal of biases during the first few months of the SMAP mission that are related to the operation of the SMAP radar during that time. (2) Mitigation of biases that depend on the SMAP look angle. (3) Mitigation of salty biases at high Northern latitudes. (4) Revised sun-glint flag. Each data file covers one 98-minute orbit (15 files per day), is available in netCDF-4 file format with about 5 hours l atency.

This RSS SMAP-SSS V6.0 NRT dataset holds tremendous potential for scientific research and various applications. Given the SMAP satellite's near-polar orbit and sun-synchronous nature with its 1000km swath, it achieves global coverage in approximately three days, enabling researchers to monitor and model global oceanic and climatic phenomena with unprecedented detail and timeliness. These data can inform and enhance understanding of global weather patterns, the Earth’s hydrological cycle, ocean circulation, and climate change.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
21 Dynamically updated RSS webpage listing L2 files with Bad Orbits http://images.remss.com/figures/missions/smap/bad_orbits.txt
21 NASA SMAP Mission Website https://smap.jpl.nasa.gov/
21 Remote Sensing Systems SMAP Sea Surface Salinity Website http://www.remss.com/missions/smap
21 Dynamically updated RSS webpage listing L2 files with missing ancillary inputs http://images.remss.com/figures/missions/smap/bad_ancillaries.txt
21 SMAP-SSS Project and Instrument Overview http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/smap
21 HTTPS endpoint for data browse and download https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/virtual-directory/collections/C2832224417-POCLOUD
21 Generic data readers https://github.com/podaac/data-readers
21 Known issues README https://archive.podaac.earthdata.nasa.gov/podaac-ops-cumulus-docs/smap/open/L2/RSS/README.txt
21 Data Use and Citation Policy https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/CitingPODAAC
21 Search results for publications that cite this dataset by its DOI. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=10.5067%2FSMP60-2SNRT
33 ATBD, Validation Analysis, Product Specifications, etc https://archive.podaac.earthdata.nasa.gov/podaac-ops-cumulus-docs/smap/open/docs/V6/Release_V6.0.pdf
33 SMAP-SSS V6.0 Technical Guide (ATBD, Validation Analysis, Product Format Specification) https://archive.podaac.earthdata.nasa.gov/podaac-ops-cumulus-docs/smap/open/docs/V6/ATBD_EOM_final.pdf
21 Information on Data Outages & Known Issues https://archive.podaac.earthdata.nasa.gov/podaac-ops-cumulus-docs/aquarius/open/README.KnownIssues.txt
22 Thumbnail https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/Podaac/thumbnails/SMAP_RSS_L2_SSS_NRT_V6.jpg
21 Browse granule search results in Earthdata Search https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/search/granules?p=C2832224417-POCLOUD
21 Data Subscriber https://github.com/podaac/data-subscriber

Tags

  • salinity-density
  • oceans
  • earth-science

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