July 23-28, 2017
Fort Worth, TX USA
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/8118204/proceedingThe 2017 Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) was held in Fort Worth Texas, and the theme for the meeting was "International Cooperation for Global Awareness". The symposium included presentations on salinity for SMAP and Aquarius. IGARSS is sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

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Martinez, J., Olmedo, E., Gonzalez-Gambau, V., Turiel, A., and Yueh, S. [23-July-17]. A new debiased non-Bayesian methodology has demonstrated to be very effective for the retrieval of Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) from brightness temperature (TB) measured by Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) interferometric radiometer. Applying this methodology it is possible to retrieve SSS values in marginal seas or cold waters where the operational retrieval does not. Dinnat, E.P. and Brucker, L. [23-July-17]. We present a model to derive the ice fraction affecting observations by the Aquarius and SMAP radiometers and discuss the impact of different types of ice on observed brightness temperatures. Yue, X., Zhang, B., He, Y., and Han, Z. [23-July-17]. We use multiple satellite observations and numerical simulation to investigate the upper ocean response to Typhoon Kalmaegi in 2014 in the South China Sea (SCS). In this study, significant sea surface temperature (SST) decreasing is observed, which is caused by typhoon-induced vertical mixing and upwelling. The maximum SST cooling is 2°C on the right of the typhoon track since inertial currents rotate in the same direction as the surface wind vectors. We also find an interesting phenomenon that salinity decreases ranging between 0.3 and 0.6 psu on the left side of the typhoon track. We use numerical simulations and in-situ observations to further confirm that salinity reduction is caused by heavy rainfall. Tang, W., Yueh, S., Fore, A., and Hayashi, A. [23-July-17]. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of sea surface temperature (SST) on L-band microwave measurements and its implication on sea surface salinity (SSS) retrieval. Of particular interest is in the cold and fresh water where large SSS retrieval errors exist in comparison with Argo data. Yueh, S., Entekhabi, D., O'Neill, P., and Entin, J. [23-July-17]. The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory was launched January 31, 2015, and its L-band radiometer and radar instruments became operational during April 2015. This paper provides a summary of the quality assessment of its baseline soil moisture and freeze/thaw products as well as an overview of new products. Lee, M., Vayghan, A.H., Liu, D-C., and Yang, W-C. [23-July-17]. Albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga) is one of the important commercial species of the longline fishery in the southern Indian Ocean (SIO). The satellite-based oceanographic data of net primary production (NPP), sea-surface temperature (SST), sea surface salinity (SSS), mixed layer depth (MLD), sea-surface height (SSH) and eddy kinetic energy (EKE), were used to evaluate the effects of oceanographic conditions on the hotspot habitat for Albacore tuna and to explore the spatial variability of these features in the SIO using the generalized additive model (GAM) and maximum entropy models (MaxEnt). The results from the Maxent and GAM revealed its potential for predicting the spatial distribution of Albacore tuna and highlight the use of multispectral satellite images for describing habitats. In these two models, the spatial habitat patterns were explained predominantly by SST (17-21°C) and indicated that SST is the most influential factor in the geographic distribution of Albacore tuna. Hoptspot habitat formation were also possibly related to the MLD (60-120 m), NPP (250-450 mg C/m²d¹) and SSH (0.4-0.6 m). de Matthaeis, P. and Le Vine, D.M. [23-July-17]. Aquarius is an microwave active/passive sensor whose main goal is to globally estimate sea surface salinity from space [1, 2]. Two instruments, a radar scatterometer and a radiometer, operate at L-band observing the same surface footprint almost simultaneously. The sensitivity to sea surface salinity (SSS) is given by the radiometer, while the scatterometer measurements provide a correction for sea surface roughness. Although the primary objective is the measurement of SSS, the instrument combination operates continuously, acquiring data over land and sea ice as well. Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) can occur in both the radiometer and the scatterometer bands of operation, and for this reason detection and mitigation of RFI was included in the data processing of both active and passive instruments. This paper will focus on the RFI processing for the Aquarius radiometer only and provide an update on the efforts to reduce the amount of missed RFI detection. Jacob, M., Jones, L.W., Drushka, K., Santos-Garcia, A., Asher, W. and Scavuzzo, M. [23-July-17]. Based upon research with the Aquarius (AQ) satellite remote sensor, a rain impact model (RIM) has been developed which estimates the occurrence of sea surface salinity (SSS) stratification. RIM uses global salinity (HYCOM) and rainfall (CMORPH) products to estimate the transient change in SSS due to rainfall. Previously SSS predicted by RIM have exhibited good correlations with AQ, but the choice for the duration window (24 h) was arbitrary. In this paper, we examine the effect on RIM of different time duration windows. Dinnat, E.P., Le Vine, D.M., Boutin, J., and Meissner, T. [23-July-17]. We present comparisons between satellite sea surface salinity products from the SMOS, Aquarius and SMAP missions and assess some of the reasons for the observed differences. Weissman, D.E., Morey, S., and Bourassa, M. [23-July-17]. This project is focused on improving methods of estimating salinity from SMAP data that will be applied to yield new information on salinity variability in regions impacted by river plumes. Lang, R., Zhou, Y., Dinnat, E., and Le Vine, D.M. [23-July-17]. Existing model functions for the dielectric constant of sea water produce viable retrievals of ocean salinity but with differences that are important for eventual optimization of the science product. Issues exist in cold water and the dependence on sea surface temperature. Tang, W., Fore, A., Yueh, S., Lee, T., Hayashi, A., Sanchez-Franks, A., and Baranowski, D. [23-July-17]. Sea surface salinity (SSS) retrieved from SMAP radiometer measurements is validated with in situ salinity measurements collected from Argo floats, tropical moored buoys and ship-based thermosalinograph (TSG) data. SMAP SSS achieved accuracy of 0.2 PSU on a monthly basis in comparison with Argo gridded data in the tropics and mid-latitudes. Fore, A., Yueh, S., Tang, W., Stiles, B., and Hayashi, A. [23-July-17]. In this work we use the Rapid Scatterometer (RapidScat) and Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR) to further validate these SMAP radiometer-only high-wind speed retrievals.