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 »
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). NASA Saildrone Arctic Campaign Dataset Released (18-May-20). The PO.DAAC is pleased to announce the availability of the Saildrone Arctic field campaign data. New SPURS-2 Field Campaign Datasets Released (15-May-20). The PO.DAAC is pleased to announce the availability of additional datasets from the NASA SPURS-2 field campaign.
Recent Publications »
Xu, H., Yu, R., Liu, Y., Tang, D., Wang, S., and Fu, D. (2020). Effects of Tropical Cyclones on Sea Surface Salinity in the Bay of Bengal Based on SMAP and Argo Data Greaser, S., Subrahmanyam, B., Trott, C., and Roman-Stork, H. (2020). Interactions Between Mesoscale Eddies and Synoptic Oscillations in the Bay of Bengal During the Strong Monsoon of 2019 Das, B., Anandh, T., Kuttippurath, J., and Chakraborty, A. (2020). Influence of River Discharge and Tides on the Summertime Discontinuity of Western Boundary Current in the Bay of Bengal Dzwonkowski, B., Coogan, J., Fournier, S., Lockridge, G., Park, K., and Lee, T. (2020). Compounding Impact of Severe Weather Events Fuels Marine Heatwave in the Coastal Ocean Shoup, C., Roman-Stork, H., and Subrahmanyam, B. (2020). Analysis of Coupled Oceanic and Atmospheric Preconditioning for Primary Madden-Julian Oscillation Events Across ENSO Phases
