RSS SMAP Level 3 Sea Surface Salinity Standard Mapped Image 8-Day Running Mean V5.0 Validated Dataset

Description

The version 5.0 SMAP-SSS level 3, 8-Day running mean gridded product is based on the fifth release of the validated standard mapped sea surface salinity (SSS) data from the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory, produced operationally by Remote Sensing Systems (RSS). The major changes in Version 5.0 from Version 4 are: (1) the addition of formal uncertainty estimates to all salinity retrieval products. (2) Sea-ice flagging and sea-ice side-lobe correction based on direct ingestion of AMSR-2 brightness temperature (TB) measurements. This is in contrast to Version 4 and earlier versions in which the sea-ice correction was based on an external sea-ice concentration product. The use of AMSR-2 TB measurements in the SMAP Version 5 products allows for salinity retrievals closer to the sea-ice edge and aids in the detection of large icebergs near the Antarctic. Daily data files for this product are based on SSS averages spanning an 8-day moving time window. SMAP data begins on April 1,2015 and is ongoing. L3 products are global in extent with a default spatial resolution of approximately 70KM. The datasets are gridded at 0.25degree x 0.25degree. Note that while a SSS 40KM variable is also included in the product, for most open ocean applications, the default SSS variable (70KM) is best used as they are significantly less noisy than the 40KM data. The SMAP satellite is in a near-polar orbit at an inclination of 98 degrees and an altitude of 685 km. It has an ascending node time of 6 pm and is sun-synchronous. With its 1000km swath, SMAP achieves global coverage in approximately 3 days, but has an exact orbit repeat cycle of 8 days. On board instruments include a highly sensitive L-band radiometer operating at 1.41GHz and an L-band 1.26GHz radar sensor providing complementary active and passive sensing capabilities. Malfunction of the SMAP scatterometer on 7 July, 2015, has necessitated the use of collocated wind speed, primarily from WindSat, for the surface roughness correction required for the surface salinity retrieval.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
21 SMAP-SSS Project and Instrument Overview http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/smap
21 Know issues README https://archive.podaac.earthdata.nasa.gov/podaac-ops-cumulus-docs/smap/open/L3/RSS/README.txt
21 Dynamically updated RSS webpage listing L2 files with missing ancillary inputs http://images.remss.com/figures/missions/smap/bad_ancillaries.txt
21 Dynamically updated RSS webpage listing L2 files with Bad Orbits http://images.remss.com/figures/missions/smap/bad_orbits.txt
33 SMAP-SSS V5.0 Technical Guide (ATBD, Validation Analysis, Product Format Specification) https://archive.podaac.earthdata.nasa.gov/podaac-ops-cumulus-docs/smap/open/docs/V5/SMAP_NASA_RSS_Salinity_Release_V5.0.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_L3_SSS_SMI_8DAY-RUNNINGMEAN_V5.jpg
21 Data Use and Citation Policy https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/CitingPODAAC
21 HTTPS endpoint for data browse and download https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/virtual-directory/collections/C2208425700-POCLOUD
21 Browse granule search results in Earthdata Search https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/search/granules?p=C2208425700-POCLOUD
21 Generic data readers https://github.com/podaac/data-readers
21 Data Subscriber https://github.com/podaac/data-subscriber
21 Remote Sensing Systems SMAP Sea Surface Salinity Website http://www.remss.com/missions/smap
21 Search results for publications that cite this dataset by its DOI. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=10.5067%2FSMP50-3SPCS
21 NASA SMAP Mission Website http://smap.jpl.nasa.gov/

Tags

  • salinity-density
  • oceans
  • earth-science

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