Status of Aquarius/SAC-D and Aquarius Salinity Retrievals

Aquarius was launched in June 2011 to monitor the global salinity field in the open ocean. This radiometer/scatterometer (i.e., passive/active) instrument is part of the Aquarius/SAC-D mission, a partnership between the USA and Argentina. In general, the observatory and instruments have functioned well with mostly minor issues. Aquarius has been operating successfully since being turned on August 25, 2011. The quality of the salinity retrieval has improved continuously and is approaching the accuracy goal of 0.2 psu (monthly global RMS). The maps produced by Aquarius show the global structure and dynamic features of the salinity field and, now after 3 years of operations, data are available to give a first look at the interannual changes in sea surface salinity. An improved salinity product, Version 3.0, has been released to the public (June 2014) and includes significant refinements in the retrieval algorithm such as reduced ascending/descending differences and improved calibration. Additional data such as global maps of soil moisture and maps of RFI are also available.