NASA Salinity: High Latitudes

Highlights

High Latitudes

In the Arctic, salinity trends
reveal water cycle variations.
Salinity is an important - but poorly studied - component
of the high-latitude ocean. In the rapidly changing Arctic,
salinity trends reveal water cycle variations.
Salinity is a key ingredient in the
layering of high-latitude ocean waters.
Salinity is a key ingredient in the layering of high-latitude
ocean waters. Thus, it influences the formation of
water masses and affects global ocean circulation.
Detecting cold-water salinity
from space is challenging.
Detecting cold-water salinity from space has been challenging.
NASA is investigating how to monitor our polar oceans
with improved sensors and computer models.

"Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius." - Pietro Aretino

Climate is changing. And nowhere is it more evident than near Earth's poles. Life that has adapted to these extreme regions – including sea ice-dependent species from tiny algae to huge polar bears – is being impacted. Salinity is a "key ingredient" for high-latitude ocean ecological communities. Why? It affects seawater density which, in turn, influences the movement of water, heat, and carbon.

A basin surrounded by land, the Arctic Ocean has a cap of frozen seawater (a.k.a. "sea ice") that waxes and wanes. For years, satellites have tracked sea ice growth each winter and the dramatic extent of sea ice melt each summer. In the Arctic Ocean, thermohaline (i.e., temperature- and salt-controlled) layering is vital to maintaining the cold, relatively fresh surface waters that support diverse ecosystems. However, measuring cold-water salinity from space is challenging.

Antarctica is a large continent surrounded by the Southern Ocean. Because of this geography, sea ice has more room to expand in the winter. So, sea ice – along with other ice that originated on land such as icebergs – can move into warmer latitudes and melt. Being the only place where our seas circle Earth without being slowed down by land, the Southern Ocean is prone to very high winds. Along with cold temperatures, a wind-roughened sea surface hampers the accurate measurement of salinity from satellite.

Use the tool below – based on studies by Lind et al. (2018) and Haumann et al. (2016) – to investigate the characteristics of salinity in the Arctic and Antarctic. Use the buttons to toggle between locations.

Antarctic and Arctic sea ice. Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Thermohaline Circulation (video)

Arctic Ocean Circulation

Map and cross-sectional diagram of salinity in the Arctic Ocean

Arctic Ocean Salinity and Currents

Distribution of salinity across the Arctic Ocean

Arctic Ocean In-water Salinity

Distribution of potential temperature across the Arctic Ocean

Arctic Ocean Potential Temperature

Laptev Sea Ice

Survey track and measurement data of Saildrone track 1037

Saildrone Measurement Data (video)

Color-coded map of ice velocities in Antarctica

First Map of Antarctica's Moving Ice

Ice Flow Across Antarctica (video)

Collapse of Larsen-B Ice Shelf (video)

Southern Ocean Changes

Related Publications

Note that some of the references are related to calibration and validation of salinity measurements in high-latitude regions (e.g., "DOME-C" in Antarctica).

Demir, O., Johnson, J., Jezek, K., Andrews, M., Ayotte, K., Hendricks, S., Kaleschke, L., Oggier, M., Granskog, M., Fong, A., Hoppmann, M., Matero, I., and Scholz, D. (2021). Measurements of 540-1740 MHz Brightness Temperatures of Sea Ice During the Winter of the MOSAiC Campaign, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2021.3105360.
IEEE
Mchedlishvili, A., Spreen, G., Melsheimer, C., and Huntemann, M. (2021). Weddell Sea Polynya Analysis using SMOS-SMAP Sea Ice Thickness Retrieval, The Cryosphere Discuss., doi: 10.5194/tc-2021-138.
EGU
Garcia-Eidell, C., Comiso, J.C., Berkelhammer, M., and Stock, L. (2021). Interrelationships of Sea Surface Salinity, Chlorophyll-α Concentration, and Sea Surface Temperature Near the Antarctic Ice Edge, J. Clim., doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-20-0716.1.
AMS
Miller, J.Z., Culberg, R., Long, D.G., Shuman, C.A., Schroeder, D.M., and Brodzik, M.J. (2021). An Empirical Algorithm to Map Perennial Firn Aquifers, Ice Slabs, and Perched Firn Aquifers Within the Greenland Ice Sheet Using Satellite L-Band Microwave Radiometry, The Cryosphere Discuss. [preprint], doi: 10.5194/tc-2021-116, in review.
EGU
Hall, S.B., Subrahmanyam, B., Nyadjro, E.S., and Samuelsen, A. (2021). Surface Freshwater Fluxes in the Arctic and Subarctic Seas During Contrasting Years of High and Low Summer Sea Ice Extent., Remote Sens., 13 (8), 1570, doi: 10.3390/rs13081570.
MDPI
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, J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol., 38 (3), 405-421, doi: 10.1175/JTECH-D-20-0093.1.
AMS
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, Remote Sens. 2021, 13, 831, doi: 10.3390/rs13050831.
MDPI
Shiklomanov, A., Dery, S., Tretiakov, M., Yang, D., Magritsky, D., Georgiadi, A., and Tang, W. (2020). River Freshwater Flux to the Arctic Ocean, In Yang D., Kane D. (eds) Arctic Hydrology, Permafrost and Ecosystems, 703-738, Springer, Cham., doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-50930-9_24.
Springer
Yu, L. (2020). Variability and Uncertainty of Satellite Sea Surface Salinity in the Subpolar North Atlantic (2010–2019), Remote Sens., 12(13), 2092, doi: 10.3390/rs12132092.
MDPI
Drushka, K., Gaube, P., Armitage, T., Cerovecki, I., Fenty, I., Fournier, S., Gentemann, C., Girton, J., Haumann, A., Lee, T., Mazloff, M., Padman, L., Rainville, L., Schanze, J., Springer, S., Steele, M., Thomson, J., and Wilson, E. (2020). A NASA High-latitude Salinity Campaign, White paper, 20 pp., doi: 10.6084/m9.figshare.12469154.v1.
Figshare
Fournier, S., Lee, T., Wang, X., Armitage, T., Wang, O., Fukumori, I., and Kwok, R. (2020). Sea Surface Salinity as a Proxy for Arctic Ocean Freshwater Changes, J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, e2020JC016110, doi: 10.1029/2020JC016110.
AGU
Tang, W., Yueh, S., Yang, D., Mcleod, E., Fore, A., Hayashi, A., Olmedo, E., Martínez, J., and Gabarró, C. (2020). The Potential of Space-based Sea Surface Salinity on Monitoring the Hudson Bay Freshwater Cycle, Remote Sens., 12(5), 873, doi: 10.3390/rs12050873.
MDPI
Fournier, S., Lee, T., Tang, W., Steele, M., and Olmedo, E. (2019). Evaluation and Intercomparison of SMOS, Aquarius, and SMAP Sea Surface Salinity Products in the Arctic Ocean, Remote Sens., 2019, 11, 3043, doi: 10.3390/rs11243043.
MDPI
Martínez, J., Gabarró, C., Olmedo, E., González-Gambau, V., González-Haro, C., Turiel, A., Sabia, R., Tang, W., and Yueh, S. (2019). Arctic Sea Surface Salinity Retrieval from SMOS Measures, Int. Geosci. Remote Se., 8154-8157, doi: 10.1109/IGARSS.2019.8898773.
IEEE
Wang, Z., Bai, Y., Yu, S., Tao, B., Zhu, Q., and Gong, F. (2019). Variation of Summertime Sea Surface Salinity of the Arctic Ocean During 2011-2017, Proc. SPIE 11150, Remote Sensing of the Ocean, Sea Ice, Coastal Waters, and Large Water Regions 2019, 111500L, doi: 10.1117/12.2532985.
SPIE
Toyoda, T., Iwamoto, K., Urakawa, L., Tsujino, H., Nakano, H., Sakamoto, K., Yamanaka, G., Komuro, Y., Nishino, S., and Ukita, J. (2019). Incorporation of Satellite-derived Thin-Ice Data into a Global OGCM Simulation, Clim. Dynam., 53(11), 7113-7130, doi: 10.1007/s00382-019-04979-8.
Springer

Smith, G., Allard, R., Babin, M., Bertino, L, Chevallier, M., Corlett, G., Crout, J., Davidson, F., Delille, B., Gille, S., Hebert, D., Hyder, P., Intrieri, J., Lagunas, J., Larnicol, G., Kaminski, T., Kater, B., Kauker, F., Marec, C., Mazloff, M., Metzger, E., Mordy, C., O’Carroll, A., Olsen, S., Phelps, M., Posey, P., Prandi, P., Rehm, E., Reid, P., Rigor, I., Sandven, S., Shupe, M., Swart, S., Smedstad, O., Solomon, A., Storto, A., Thibaut, P., Toole, J., Wood, K., Xie, J., Yang, Q,. and the WWRP PPP Steering Group (2019). Polar Ocean Observations: A Critical Gap in the Observing System and Its Effect on Environmental Predictions From Hours to a Season., Front. Mar. Sci., 6, 429, doi: 10.3389/fmars.2019.00429.
Frontiers
Liu, J., Chen, Z., Hu, Y., Zhang, Y., Ding, Y., Cheng, X., Yang, Q., Nerger, L., Spreen, G., Horton, R., Inoue, J., Yang, C., Li, M., and Song, M. (2019). Towards Reliable Arctic Sea Ice Prediction Using Multivariate Data Assimilation, Sci. Bull., 64(1), 63-72, doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2018.11.018.
ScienceDirect
Olmedo, E., Gabarro, C., Gonzalez-Gambau, V., Martinez, J., Ballabrera-Poy, J., Turiel, A., Portabella, M., Fournier, S., and Lee., T. (2018). Seven Years of SMOS Sea Surface Salinity at High Latitudes: Variability in Arctic and Sub-Arctic Regions, Remote Sens. 10 (11), 1772, doi:10.3390/rs10111772.
MDPI
Aulicino, G., Cotroneo, Y., Ansorge, I., van den Berg, M., Cesarano, C., Rivas, M.B., and Casal, E.O. (2018). Sea Surface Salinity and Temperature in the Southern Atlantic Ocean from South African Icebreakers, 2010-2017, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 10 (3), 1227-1236, doi: 105194/essd-10-1227-2018.
ESSD
Lind, S., Ingvaldsen, R.B., and Furevik, T. (2018). Arctic Warming Hotspot in the Northern Barents Sea Linked to Declining Sea-ice Import, Nature Clim. Change 8, 634-639, doi: 10.1038/s41558-018-0205-y.
Nature
Tang, W., Yueh, S., Yang, D., Fore, A., Hayashi, A., Lee, T., Fournier, S., and Holt, B. (2018). The Potential and Challenges of Using Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Sea Surface Salinity to Monitor Arctic Ocean Freshwater Changes, Remote Sens. 10 (6), 869, doi: 10.3390/rs10060869.
MDPI
Garcia-Eidell, C., Comiso, J. C., Dinnat, E., and Brucker, L. (2017). Satellite Observed Salinity Distributions at High Latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere: A Comparison of Four Products, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, doi: 10.1002/2017JC013184.
Wiley
Landy, J.C., Ehn, J.K., Babb, D.G., Theriault, N., and Barber, D.G. (2017). Sea Ice Thickness in the Eastern Canadian Arctic: Hudson Bay Complex & Baffin Bay, Remote Sens. Environ., 200, 281-294, doi: 10.1016/j.rse.2017.08.019.
ScienceDirect
Polyakov, I.V., Pnyushkov, A.V., Alkire, M.B., Ashik, I.M., Baumann, T.M., Carmack, E.C., Goszczko, I., Guthrie, J., Ivanov, V.V., Kanzow, T., Krishfield, R., Kwok, R., Sundfjord, A., Morison, J., Rember, R., and Yulin, A. (2017). Greater Role for Atlantic Inflows on Sea-ice Loss in the Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean, Science, 356 (6335), 285-291, doi: 10.1126/science.aai8204.
Science
Cozar, A., Marti, E., Duarte, C.M., Garcia-de-Lomas, J., van Sabille, E., Ballatore, T.J., Eguiluz, V.M., Gonzalez-Gordillo, J.I., Pedrotti, M.L., Echevarria, F., Trouble, R., and Irogoien, X. (2017). The Arctic Ocean as a Dead End for Floating Plastics in the North Atlantic Branch of the Thermohaline Circulation, Sci. Adv., 3 (4), e1600582, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1600582.
AAAS
D’Sa, E.J., and Kim, H-c. (2017). Surface Gradients in Dissolved Organic Matter Absorption and Fluorescence Properties along the New Zealand Sector of the Southern Ocean, Front. Mar. Sci., 4, 21, doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00021.
Frontiers
Misra, S. and Brown, S.T. (2017). Enabling the Extraction of Climate-Scale Temporal Salinity Variations from Aquarius: An Instrument Based Long-Term Radiometer Drift Correction, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 55 (5), 2913-2923, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2017.2656081.
IEEE
Haumann, F.A., Gruber, N., Münnich, M., Frenger, I., and Kern, S. (2016). Sea-ice Transport Driving Southern Ocean Salinity and its Recent Trends, Nature, 537, 89-92, doi: 10.1038/nature19101.
Nature
Brown, S.T. and Misra, S. (2016). Characterizing Drifts in Spaceborne L-band Radiometers Using Stable Reference Regions: Application to the Aquarius Mission, IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl., 9 (11), 5239-5251, doi: 10.1109/JSTARS.2016.2518629.
IEEE
Benallal, M.A., Moussa, H., Touratier, F., Goyet, C., and Poisson, A. (2015). Ocean Salinity from Satellite-derived Temperature in the Antarctic Ocean, Antarct. Sci., doi: 10.1017/S0954102015000516.
Cambridge Journals
Spielhagen, R.F. and Bauch, H.A. (2015). The Role of Arctic Ocean Freshwater During the Past 200 ky, Arktos, 1, 18, doi: 10.1007/s41063-015-0013-9.
Springer
Skou, N., Kristensen, S.S., Sobjaerg, S.S., and Balling, J.E. (2015). Airborne L-band Radiometer Mapping of the Dome-C Area in Antarctica, IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl., 8 (7), 3656-3664, doi: 10.1109/JSTARS.2015.2425039.
IEEE
Pablos, M., Piles, M., González-Gambau, V., Camps, A., and Vall-llossera, M. (2015). Ice Thickness Effects on Aquarius Brightness Temperatures Over Antarctica, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 120 (4), 2856-2868, doi: 10.1002/2014JC010151.
Wiley
Leduc-Leballeur, M., Picard, G., Mialon, A., Arnaud, L., Lefebvre, E., Possenti, P., and Kerr, Y. (2015). Modeling L-band Brightness Temperature at Dome C in Antarctica and Comparison with SMOS Observations, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 53 (7), 4022-4032, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2015.2388790.
IEEE
Brucker, L., Dinnat, E.P., and Koenig, L.S. (2014). Weekly Gridded Aquarius L-band Radiometer/Scatterometer Observations and Salinity Retrievals Over the Polar Regions - Part 2: Initial Product Analysis, The Cryosphere, 8, 915-930, doi:10.5194/tc-8-915-2014.
The Cryosphere
Brucker, L., Dinnat, E.P., Picard, G., and Champollion, N. (2014). Effect of Snow Surface Metamorphism on Aquarius L-band Radiometer Observations at Dome C, Antarctica, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 52 (11), 7408-7417, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2014.2312102.
IEEE
Ngheim, S.V. and Clemete-Colon, P. (2008). Arctic Sea Ice Mapping with Satellite Radars, IEEE Natl. Radar Conf., June 2008, doi: 10.1109/RADAR.2008.4720991.
IEEE
Macelloni, G., Brogioni, M., Pampaloni, P., Cagnati, A., and Drinkwater, M.R. (2006). DOMEX 2004: An Experimental Campaign at Dome-C Antarctica for the Calibration of Spaceborne Low-Frequency Microwave Radiometers, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 44 (10), 2642-2653, doi: 10.1109/tgrs.2006.882801.
IEEE
Aagaard, K., Swift, J.H., and Carmack, E.C. (1985). Thermohaline Circulation in the Arctic Mediterranean Seas, J. Geophys. Res., 90 (C3), 4833-4846, doi: 10.1029/JC090iC03p04833.
Wiley

To view all salinity publications, visit the publications page.

Arctic Minimum (Sep 1990)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 1991)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 1992)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 1993)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 1994)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 1995)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 1996)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 1997)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 1998)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 1999)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2000)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2001)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2002)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2003)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2004)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2005)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2006)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2007)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2008)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2009)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2010)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2011)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2012)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2013)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2014)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2015)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2016)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2017)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2018)
Arctic Minimum (Sep 2019)

Arctic Maxima (Mar 1991)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 1992)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 1993)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 1994)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 1995)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 1996)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 1997)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 1998)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 1999)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2000)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2001)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2002)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2003)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2004)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2005)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2006)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2007)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2008)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2009)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2010)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2011)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2012)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2013)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2014)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2015)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2016)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2017)
Arctic Maxima (Mar 2018)
Arctic Maxima (Sep 2019)

Antarctic Minimum (Feb 1992)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 1993)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 1994)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 1995)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 1996)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 1997)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 1998)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 1999)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2000)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2001)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2002)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2003)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2004)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2005)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2006)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2007)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2008)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2009)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2010)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2011)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2012)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2013)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2014)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2015)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2016)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2017)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2018)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2019)
Antarctic Minimum (Feb 2020)

Antarctic Maxima (Sep 1991)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 1992)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 1993)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 1994)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 1995)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 1996)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 1997)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 1998)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 1999)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2000)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2001)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2002)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2003)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2004)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2005)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2006)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2007)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2008)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2009)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2010)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2011)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2012)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2013)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2014)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2015)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2016)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2017)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2018)
Antarctic Maxima (Sep 2019)

Choose among four slideshows featuring minimum and maximum sea ice concentrations around the Arctic and Antarctica since 1990. Minima show the months of September and February for the Arctic and Antarctic, respectively. Maxima shows the months of March and September, for the Arctic and Antarctic, respectively. (Source: NASA Earth Observatory's World of Change – Arctic & Antarctic)

Featured Publications

Changes in Arctic freshwater distribution impacts ocean circulation, climate, and life. This study explores the use of satellite-derived sea surface salinity (SSS) as a proxy for Arctic freshwater changes. It builds on previous work that used satellite‐derived sea surface height (SSH) and ocean bottom pressure (OBP) to infer depth‐integrated freshwater content changes. This proof‐of‐concept study analyzes the output of an ocean‐ice state estimation product, finding that SSS variations are coherent with SSH-minus-OBP across much of the Arctic basin.

Reference

Fournier, S., Lee, T., Wang, X., Armitage, T., Wang, O., Fukumori, I., and Kwok, R. (2020). Read the full paper.

Spectacular view of the seasonal summer ice melt over northeastern Canada

Hudson Bay, the largest semi-inland sea in the Northern Hemisphere, is completely covered by ice and snow in winter. About six months each year, however, satellite remote sensing of sea surface salinity (SSS) can be retrieved over open water. This provides some insight into freshwater cycles in the Arctic Ocean where SSS data are scarce. The study found that the main source of the year-to-year SSS variability in Hudson Bay is sea ice melting. The freshwater contribution from surface forcing precipitation minus evaporation (P-E) is smaller in magnitude but lasts through the entire open water season. River discharge is comparable with P-E in magnitude but peaks before ice melt. View the one-pager.

Reference

Tang, W., Yueh, S., Yang, D., Mcleod, E., Fore, A., Hayashi, A., Olmedo, E., Martínez, J., and Gabarró, C. (2020). Read the full paper.

Number of in-situ observations from 2011 to 2017

This study presents the first systematic analysis of six commonly used sea surface salinity (SSS) products from NASA and the European Space Agency in terms of their consistency among one another and with in-situ data. When averaged over the Arctic Ocean, the products show excellent consistency in capturing seasonal and year-to-year variations. The products also consistently identify regions with strong SSS variability over time. However, many challenges still exist in retrieving Arctic SSS because brightness temperature (TB) has lower sensitivity in colder waters at the frequency employed by today's SSS satellites (i.e., L-band). View the One-pager. Read about an evaluation and intercomparison of SMOS, Aquarius, and SMAP SSS products in our Research Insights.

Reference

Fournier, S., Lee, T., Tang, W., Steele, M., and Olmedo, E. (2019). Read the full paper.

Resources

Background

All About Sea Ice
NSIDC
World of Change: Arctic Sea Ice
NASA Earth Observatory
World of Change: Antarctic Sea Ice
NASA Earth Observatory
Sea Ice Communities
NASA Salinity
Sea Ice
NASA Earth Observatory
Research Insights – Arctic Ocean
NASA Salinity
Arctic Ocean Circulation: Going Around at the Top of the World
Nature
Understanding Climate: Antarctic Sea Ice Extent
NOAA
Sea-ice Transport Driving Southern Ocean Salinity
Nature
Arctic Warming Hotspot in the Northern Barents Sea
Nature
Greater Role for Atlantic Inflows on Sea-ice Loss
Science Magazine
Arctic Regional Climatology
NOAA
Polar Regions
IPCC

Activities

Can Seawater Freeze?
NASA Salinity
Density and Ocean Circulation
NASA Salinity

Videos

Melting Ice, Rising Seas: Studying Change in Ice Sheets & Glaciers
NASA Salinity
Melting Ice, Rising Seas: Ice Melt & Sea Level Rise
NASA Salinity

See the Maps

SMAP Maps: Sea Surface Salinity, Northern Hemisphere
NASA Salinity
SMAP Maps: Sea Surface Salinity, Southern Hemisphere
NASA Salinity
Aquarius Maps: Sea Surface Salinity at High Latitudes
NASA Salinity

Related Publications

Demir, O., Johnson, J., Jezek, K., Andrews, M., Ayotte, K., Hendricks, S., Kaleschke, L., Oggier, M., Granskog, M., Fong, A., Hoppmann, M., Matero, I., and Scholz, D. (2021). Measurements of 540-1740 MHz Brightness Temperatures of Sea Ice During the Winter of the MOSAiC Campaign, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2021.3105360.
IEEE
Mchedlishvili, A., Spreen, G., Melsheimer, C., and Huntemann, M. (2021). Weddell Sea Polynya Analysis using SMOS-SMAP Sea Ice Thickness Retrieval, The Cryosphere Discuss., doi: 10.5194/tc-2021-138.
EGU
Garcia-Eidell, C., Comiso, J.C., Berkelhammer, M., and Stock, L. (2021). Interrelationships of Sea Surface Salinity, Chlorophyll-α Concentration, and Sea Surface Temperature Near the Antarctic Ice Edge, J. Clim., doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-20-0716.1.
AMS
Miller, J.Z., Culberg, R., Long, D.G., Shuman, C.A., Schroeder, D.M., and Brodzik, M.J. (2021). An Empirical Algorithm to Map Perennial Firn Aquifers, Ice Slabs, and Perched Firn Aquifers Within the Greenland Ice Sheet Using Satellite L-Band Microwave Radiometry, The Cryosphere Discuss. [preprint], doi: 10.5194/tc-2021-116, in review.
EGU
Hall, S.B., Subrahmanyam, B., Nyadjro, E.S., and Samuelsen, A. (2021). Surface Freshwater Fluxes in the Arctic and Subarctic Seas During Contrasting Years of High and Low Summer Sea Ice Extent., Remote Sens., 13 (8), 1570, doi: 10.3390/rs13081570.
MDPI

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, J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol., 38 (3), 405-421, doi: 10.1175/JTECH-D-20-0093.1.
AMS
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, Remote Sens. 2021, 13, 831, doi: 10.3390/rs13050831.
MDPI
Shiklomanov, A., Dery, S., Tretiakov, M., Yang, D., Magritsky, D., Georgiadi, A., and Tang, W. (2020). River Freshwater Flux to the Arctic Ocean, In Yang D., Kane D. (eds) Arctic Hydrology, Permafrost and Ecosystems, 703-738, Springer, Cham., doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-50930-9_24.
Springer
Yu, L. (2020). Variability and Uncertainty of Satellite Sea Surface Salinity in the Subpolar North Atlantic (2010–2019), Remote Sens., 12(13), 2092, doi: 10.3390/rs12132092.
MDPI
Drushka, K., Gaube, P., Armitage, T., Cerovecki, I., Fenty, I., Fournier, S., Gentemann, C., Girton, J., Haumann, A., Lee, T., Mazloff, M., Padman, L., Rainville, L., Schanze, J., Springer, S., Steele, M., Thomson, J., and Wilson, E. (2020). A NASA High-latitude Salinity Campaign, White paper, 20 pp., doi: 10.6084/m9.figshare.12469154.v1.
Figshare
Fournier, S., Lee, T., Wang, X., Armitage, T., Wang, O., Fukumori, I., and Kwok, R. (2020). Sea Surface Salinity as a Proxy for Arctic Ocean Freshwater Changes, J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, e2020JC016110, doi: 10.1029/2020JC016110.
AGU
Tang, W., Yueh, S., Yang, D., Mcleod, E., Fore, A., Hayashi, A., Olmedo, E., Martínez, J., and Gabarró, C. (2020). The Potential of Space-based Sea Surface Salinity on Monitoring the Hudson Bay Freshwater Cycle, Remote Sens., 12(5), 873, doi: 10.3390/rs12050873.
MDPI
Fournier, S., Lee, T., Tang, W., Steele, M., and Olmedo, E. (2019). Evaluation and Intercomparison of SMOS, Aquarius, and SMAP Sea Surface Salinity Products in the Arctic Ocean, Remote Sens., 2019, 11, 3043, doi: 10.3390/rs11243043.
MDPI
Martínez, J., Gabarró, C., Olmedo, E., González-Gambau, V., González-Haro, C., Turiel, A., Sabia, R., Tang, W., and Yueh, S. (2019). Arctic Sea Surface Salinity Retrieval from SMOS Measures, Int. Geosci. Remote Se., 8154-8157, doi: 10.1109/IGARSS.2019.8898773.
IEEE
Wang, Z., Bai, Y., Yu, S., Tao, B., Zhu, Q., and Gong, F. (2019). Variation of Summertime Sea Surface Salinity of the Arctic Ocean During 2011-2017, Proc. SPIE 11150, Remote Sensing of the Ocean, Sea Ice, Coastal Waters, and Large Water Regions 2019, 111500L, doi: 10.1117/12.2532985.
SPIE
Toyoda, T., Iwamoto, K., Urakawa, L., Tsujino, H., Nakano, H., Sakamoto, K., Yamanaka, G., Komuro, Y., Nishino, S., and Ukita, J. (2019). Incorporation of Satellite-derived Thin-Ice Data into a Global OGCM Simulation, Clim. Dynam., 53(11), 7113-7130, doi: 10.1007/s00382-019-04979-8.
Springer
Smith, G., Allard, R., Babin, M., Bertino, L, Chevallier, M., Corlett, G., Crout, J., Davidson, F., Delille, B., Gille, S., Hebert, D., Hyder, P., Intrieri, J., Lagunas, J., Larnicol, G., Kaminski, T., Kater, B., Kauker, F., Marec, C., Mazloff, M., Metzger, E., Mordy, C., O’Carroll, A., Olsen, S., Phelps, M., Posey, P., Prandi, P., Rehm, E., Reid, P., Rigor, I., Sandven, S., Shupe, M., Swart, S., Smedstad, O., Solomon, A., Storto, A., Thibaut, P., Toole, J., Wood, K., Xie, J., Yang, Q,. and the WWRP PPP Steering Group (2019). Polar Ocean Observations: A Critical Gap in the Observing System and Its Effect on Environmental Predictions From Hours to a Season., Front. Mar. Sci., 6, 429, doi: 10.3389/fmars.2019.00429.
Frontiers
Liu, J., Chen, Z., Hu, Y., Zhang, Y., Ding, Y., Cheng, X., Yang, Q., Nerger, L., Spreen, G., Horton, R., Inoue, J., Yang, C., Li, M., and Song, M. (2019). Towards Reliable Arctic Sea Ice Prediction Using Multivariate Data Assimilation, Sci. Bull., 64(1), 63-72, doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2018.11.018.
ScienceDirect
Olmedo, E., Gabarro, C., Gonzalez-Gambau, V., Martinez, J., Ballabrera-Poy, J., Turiel, A., Portabella, M., Fournier, S., and Lee., T. (2018). Seven Years of SMOS Sea Surface Salinity at High Latitudes: Variability in Arctic and Sub-Arctic Regions, Remote Sens. 10 (11), 1772, doi:10.3390/rs10111772.
MDPI
Aulicino, G., Cotroneo, Y., Ansorge, I., van den Berg, M., Cesarano, C., Rivas, M.B., and Casal, E.O. (2018). Sea Surface Salinity and Temperature in the Southern Atlantic Ocean from South African Icebreakers, 2010-2017, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 10 (3), 1227-1236, doi: 105194/essd-10-1227-2018.
ESSD
Lind, S., Ingvaldsen, R.B., and Furevik, T. (2018). Arctic Warming Hotspot in the Northern Barents Sea Linked to Declining Sea-ice Import, Nature Clim. Change 8, 634-639, doi: 10.1038/s41558-018-0205-y.
Nature
Tang, W., Yueh, S., Yang, D., Fore, A., Hayashi, A., Lee, T., Fournier, S., and Holt, B. (2018). The Potential and Challenges of Using Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Sea Surface Salinity to Monitor Arctic Ocean Freshwater Changes, Remote Sens. 10 (6), 869, doi: 10.3390/rs10060869.
MDPI
Garcia-Eidell, C., Comiso, J. C., Dinnat, E., and Brucker, L. (2017). Satellite Observed Salinity Distributions at High Latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere: A Comparison of Four Products, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, doi: 10.1002/2017JC013184.
Wiley
Landy, J.C., Ehn, J.K., Babb, D.G., Theriault, N., and Barber, D.G. (2017). Sea Ice Thickness in the Eastern Canadian Arctic: Hudson Bay Complex & Baffin Bay, Remote Sens. Environ., 200, 281-294, doi: 10.1016/j.rse.2017.08.019.
ScienceDirect
Polyakov, I.V., Pnyushkov, A.V., Alkire, M.B., Ashik, I.M., Baumann, T.M., Carmack, E.C., Goszczko, I., Guthrie, J., Ivanov, V.V., Kanzow, T., Krishfield, R., Kwok, R., Sundfjord, A., Morison, J., Rember, R., and Yulin, A. (2017). Greater Role for Atlantic Inflows on Sea-ice Loss in the Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean, Science, 356 (6335), 285-291, doi: 10.1126/science.aai8204.
Science
Cozar, A., Marti, E., Duarte, C.M., Garcia-de-Lomas, J., van Sabille, E., Ballatore, T.J., Eguiluz, V.M., Gonzalez-Gordillo, J.I., Pedrotti, M.L., Echevarria, F., Trouble, R., and Irogoien, X. (2017). The Arctic Ocean as a Dead End for Floating Plastics in the North Atlantic Branch of the Thermohaline Circulation, Sci. Adv., 3 (4), e1600582, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1600582.
AAAS
D’Sa, E.J., and Kim, H-c. (2017). Surface Gradients in Dissolved Organic Matter Absorption and Fluorescence Properties along the New Zealand Sector of the Southern Ocean, Front. Mar. Sci., 4, 21, doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00021.
Frontiers
Misra, S. and Brown, S.T. (2017). Enabling the Extraction of Climate-Scale Temporal Salinity Variations from Aquarius: An Instrument Based Long-Term Radiometer Drift Correction, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 55 (5), 2913-2923, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2017.2656081.
IEEE
Haumann, F.A., Gruber, N., Münnich, M., Frenger, I., and Kern, S. (2016). Sea-ice Transport Driving Southern Ocean Salinity and its Recent Trends, Nature, 537, 89-92, doi: 10.1038/nature19101.
Nature
Brown, S.T. and Misra, S. (2016). Characterizing Drifts in Spaceborne L-band Radiometers Using Stable Reference Regions: Application to the Aquarius Mission, IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl., 9 (11), 5239-5251, doi: 10.1109/JSTARS.2016.2518629.
IEEE
Benallal, M.A., Moussa, H., Touratier, F., Goyet, C., and Poisson, A. (2015). Ocean Salinity from Satellite-derived Temperature in the Antarctic Ocean, Antarct. Sci., doi: 10.1017/S0954102015000516.
Cambridge Journals
Spielhagen, R.F. and Bauch, H.A. (2015). The Role of Arctic Ocean Freshwater During the Past 200 ky, Arktos, 1, 18, doi: 10.1007/s41063-015-0013-9.
Springer
Skou, N., Kristensen, S.S., Sobjaerg, S.S., and Balling, J.E. (2015). Airborne L-band Radiometer Mapping of the Dome-C Area in Antarctica, IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl., 8 (7), 3656-3664, doi: 10.1109/JSTARS.2015.2425039.
IEEE
Pablos, M., Piles, M., González-Gambau, V., Camps, A., and Vall-llossera, M. (2015). Ice Thickness Effects on Aquarius Brightness Temperatures Over Antarctica, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 120 (4), 2856-2868, doi: 10.1002/2014JC010151.
Wiley
Leduc-Leballeur, M., Picard, G., Mialon, A., Arnaud, L., Lefebvre, E., Possenti, P., and Kerr, Y. (2015). Modeling L-band Brightness Temperature at Dome C in Antarctica and Comparison with SMOS Observations, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 53 (7), 4022-4032, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2015.2388790.
IEEE
Brucker, L., Dinnat, E.P., and Koenig, L.S. (2014). Weekly Gridded Aquarius L-band Radiometer/Scatterometer Observations and Salinity Retrievals Over the Polar Regions - Part 2: Initial Product Analysis, The Cryosphere, 8, 915-930, doi:10.5194/tc-8-915-2014.
The Cryosphere
Brucker, L., Dinnat, E.P., Picard, G., and Champollion, N. (2014). Effect of Snow Surface Metamorphism on Aquarius L-band Radiometer Observations at Dome C, Antarctica, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 52 (11), 7408-7417, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2014.2312102.
IEEE
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IEEE
Macelloni, G., Brogioni, M., Pampaloni, P., Cagnati, A., and Drinkwater, M.R. (2006). DOMEX 2004: An Experimental Campaign at Dome-C Antarctica for the Calibration of Spaceborne Low-Frequency Microwave Radiometers, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 44 (10), 2642-2653, doi: 10.1109/tgrs.2006.882801.
IEEE
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Wiley

To view all salinity publications, visit the publications page.

Highlights

High Latitudes

Icy Ocean

Fresh Upper Layer

Warm & Salty Depths

Salty Interface

Since Mid-2010's

Atlantification

Fresh Water Inputs

Breaking Down Barriers

Warming the Atmosphere

Icy Edge of a Continent

Salty Layers

Sea Ice Freezing

Ice Melting

Northern Transport

More Ice Melting and...

...Less Ice Freezing

Salinity Signals at Depth

Climate Change Signals

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