Aquarius completed its primary three-year mission in November 2014.

Mission Overview 

The Aquarius/SAC-D mission was developed collaboratively between NASA and Argentina's space agency, Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE) to best meet the goals of each agency while giving priority to salinity measurements. CONAE built complementary sensors to detect rain, sea ice, and wind speed, plus sea surface temperature sampling. CONAE-sponsored instruments — including sensors from the French Space Agency (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, CNES) and another from the Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, ASI) — provide environmental data for a wide range of applications, including natural hazards, land processes, epidemiological studies, and air quality issues.