Aquarius

Aquarius

Satellite

SAC-D

Status

Being developed – To be utilised in the period: 2010 to ~ 2015

Mission

Ocean salinity, soil moisture

Instrument type

Co-aligned MW radiometer at 1.413 GHz + scatterometer at 1.26 GHz, both polarimetric

Scanning technique

Pushbroom. Three parallel cross-track beams: 76 km x 94 km, 84 km x 120 km, 96 km x 156 km implementing a swath of 390 km

Coverage/cycle

Global coverage in 4 days (soil moisture). Average over one month for accurate salinity measurements

Resolution

100 km average in the 390 km swath

Resources

Mass: 247 kg - Power: 291 W - Data rate: 5 kbps