Salt is essential. Circulating through our bodies and our seas, it impacts the health of people and the planet. Salt dissolved in seawater – measured as salinity – drives currents that distribute heat and carbon around the globe. So, salt not only preserves our food, it helps to preserve our climate by contributing to global ocean circulation.
Earth is an ocean planet. Key water cycle processes – precipitation and evaporation – mostly occur over the ocean. Thus, monitoring sea surface salinity patterns provides important clues about changes in our environment.
NASA observes salinity. Merging data from satellites and other instruments, our mission is to better understand ocean circulation, the water cycle, and climate.
Latest News »
Hurricanes Wakes Show Asymmetrical Response in Ocean Salinity (21-Jan-21). American Geophysical Union editors have highlighted the work of scientists examining the ties between sea surface salinity and hurricanes. Their study shows that hurricanes can induce an ocean salinity response in unexpected ways. JPL V5 Data Release (11-Dec-20). The PO.DAAC is pleased to announce the availability of the PI-produced JPL V5.0 SMAP Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) and extreme winds data. NASA Saildrone ATOMIC Field Campaign Dataset Release (30-July-20). The PO.DAAC is pleased to announce the availability of the NASA-funded Saildrone data as part of the Atlantic Tradewind Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign (ATOMIC).
Recent Publications »
Yu, L., Bingham, F.M., Lee, T., Dinnat, E.P., Fournier, S., Melnichenko, O., Tang, W., and Yueh, S.H. (2021). Revisiting the Global Patterns of Seasonal Cycle in Sea Surface Salinity Belkin, I. (2021). Remote Sensing of Ocean Fronts in Marine Ecology and Fisheries Kolodziejczyk, N., Hamon, M., Boutin, J., Vergely, J-L., Reverdin, G., Supply, A., and Reul, N. (2021). Objective Analysis of SMOS and SMAP Sea Surface Salinity to Reduce Large Scale and Time Dependent Biases from Low to High Latitudes Vazquez-Cuervo, J., Gentemann, C., Tang, W., Carroll, D., Zhang, H., Menemenlis, D., Gomez-Valdes, J., Bouali, M., and Steele, M. (2021). Using Saildrones to Validate Arctic Sea-Surface Salinity from the SMAP Satellite and from Ocean Models Fournier, S. and Lee, T. (2021). Seasonal and Interannual Variability of Sea Surface Salinity Near Major River Mouths of the World Ocean Inferred from Gridded Satellite and In-Situ Salinity Products
