ESA Sea Surface Salinity Climate Change Initiative (Sea_Surface_Salinity_cci): weekly and monthly sea surface salinity products, v2.31, for 2010 to 2019

The European Space Agency (ESA) Sea Surface Salinity CCI consortium has produced global, level 4, multi-sensor Sea Surface Salinity maps covering the 2010-2019 period. This dataset collection contains Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) v2.31 data at a spatial resolution of 50km and a time resolution of 1 week. It has been spatially sampled on a 25km EASE (Equal Area Scalable Earth) grid and 1 day of time sampling. A monthly product is also available, at a spatial resolution of 25 km and a time resolution of 1 month. This has been spatially sampled on a 25 km EASE (Equal Area Scalable Earth) grid and 15 days of time sampling. In addition to salinity, information on errors are provided (see more in the user guide and product documentation available below and on the Sea Surface Salinity CCI web page)

Contribution of satellite sea surface salinity to the estimation of liquid freshwater content in the Beaufort Sea

The hydrography of the Arctic Ocean has experienced profound changes over the last 2 decades. The sea ice extent has declined by more than 10 % per decade, and its liquid freshwater content has increased mainly due to glaciers and sea ice melting. Further, new satellite retrievals of sea surface salinity (SSS) in the Arctic might contribute to better characterizing the freshwater changes in cold regions. Ocean salinity and freshwater content are intimately related such that an increase (decrease) in one entails a decrease (increase) in the other. In this work, we evaluate the freshwater content in the Beaufort Gyre using surface salinity measurements from the satellite radiometric mission Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) and TOPAZ4b reanalysis salinity at depth, estimating the freshwater content from 2011 to 2019 and validating the results with in situ measurements. The results highlight the underestimation of the freshwater content using reanalysis data in the Beaufort Sea and a clear improvement in the freshwater content estimation when adding satellite sea surface salinity measurements in the mixed layer. The improvements are significant, with up to a 70 % reduction in bias in areas near the ice melting. Our research demonstrates how remotely sensed salinity can assist us in better monitoring the changes in the Arctic freshwater content and understanding key processes related to salinity variations that cause density differences with potential to influence the global circulation system that regulates Earth's climate.</p

Stratification Footprints in the SMOS SSS Maps

Earth Observation for Water Cycle Science. 16-18 November 202

Sea surface salinity estimates from spaceborne L-band radiometers : an overview of the first decade of observation (2010&8211;2019)

Operated since the end of 2009, the European Space Agency (ESA) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite mission is the first orbiting radiometer that collects regular and global observations from space of two Essential Climate Variables of the Global Climate Observing System : Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) and Soil Moisture. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Aquarius mission, with the primary objective to provide global SSS measurements from space operated from mid-2011 to mid-2015. NASA's Soil Moisture Active-Passive (SMAP) mission, primarily dedicated to soil moisture measurements, but also monitoring SSS, has been operating since early 2015. The primary sensors on board these three missions are passive microwave radio-meters operating at 1.4 GHz (L-band). SSS is retrieved from radiometer measurements of the sea surface brightness temperature (TB). In this paper, we first provide a historical review of SSS remote sensing with passive L-band radiometry beginning with the discussions of measurement principles, technology, sensing characteristicsand complementarities of the three afore mentioned missions. The assessment of satellite SSS products is then presented in terms of individual mission characteristics, common algorithms, and measurement uncertainties, including the validation versus in situ data, and, the consideration of sampling differences between satellite SSS and in situ salinity measurements. We next review the major scientific achievements of the combined first 10 years of satellite SSS data, including the insights enabled by these measurements regarding the linkages of SSS with the global water cycle, climate variability, and ocean biochemistry. We also highlight the new ability provided by satellites to monitor mesoscale and synoptic-scale SSS features and to advance our understanding of SSS'role in air-sea interactions, constraining ocean models, and improving seasonal predictions. An overview of satellite SSS observation highlights during this first decade and upcoming challenges are then presented

Satellite‐Based Sea Surface Salinity Designed for Ocean and Climate Studies

International audienc