Water Cycle Diagram

Description: The cycling of water and energy through the atmosphere and oceans is crucial to life on Earth. Yet the ties among the water cycle, ocean circulation, and climate are poorly understood. Interestingly, global measurement of ocean surface salinity over time provides a clear way resolve these relationships.

By tracking salinity patterns we can directly monitor variations in the water cycle: land runoff , sea ice freezing and melting, evaporation and precipitation over the oceans. Global salinty data allow us to improve computer models that bridge ocean-atmosphere-land-ice systems, with the goal of predicting future climate conditions. Credit: NASA.