Validating SMAP SSS with in situ measurements

Tang, Wenqing; Fore, Alexander; Yueh, Simon; Lee, T.; Hayashi, Atsushi; Sanchez-Franks, Alejandra; Baranowski, Dariusz B.

doi:10.1109/igarss.2017.8127518

Cited by 22 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The buoy data remained over satellite and Argo measurements during March to August 2016, which may be most likely caused by a failure of the mooring salinity sensors. It indicates that satellite SSS can be used as real‐time QC of buoy 1‐m salinity, consistent with the previous result of Tang et al (). By comparing satellite SSS, the Argo data from BOA_Argo data set and buoys, we examined the time series of all TAO buoys and found that there are six suspicious buoys with large drifts in their time series that are inconsistent with SMAP, SMOS, and Argo data (Figures c and d).…”

Section: Comparison With Tropical Pacific Tao Buoyssupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Previous studies conducted salinity data quality assessments by comparing satellite SSS with in situ measurements, but mainly for SMOS and Aquarius satellite data products (Garcia‐Eidell et al, ; Kao, Lagerloef, Lee, Melnichenko, Meissner, et al, ; Köhler et al, ; Lee, ; Maqueda et al, ; Reagan et al, ; SMOS‐BEC Team, ; Tang et al, ). Due to the late launch of the SMAP satellite, there are few related studies (Meissner et al, ; W. Tang et al, ). To the best of our knowledge, there is not yet long time series quality comparison analysis of gridded salinity products released by the main data centers of three satellites.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparison of Satellite‐Derived Sea Surface Salinity Products from SMOS, Aquarius, and SMAP

et al. 2019

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Global sea surface salinity (SSS) has been obtained from space since 2009 by the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission and has been further enhanced by Aquarius in 2011 and Soil Moisture Active‐Passive (SMAP) missions in 2015. Due to the differences between SMOS, Aquarius, and SMAP in the instruments used, retrieval algorithms, and error correction strategies, the quality of their gridded products are different. In this paper, we have assessed the accuracy of three satellite products using in situ gridded data and buoy data. Compared with gridded in situ salinity measurements, the monthly Aquarius data are of the best quality, reaching the mission target accuracy (0.2 PSU) in the open ocean. SMOS and SMAP agree well with in situ data in the open ocean between 40°S and 40°N (root‐mean‐square deviation [RMSD]: SMOS 0.211 PSU, SMAP 0.233 PSU). The RMSD of SMAP is lower than that of SMOS at high latitudes, which may due to the fact that the roughness correction of SMAP is based on the Aquarius geophysical model function. Meanwhile, time series comparison of salinity measured at 1 m by moored buoys indicates that satellite SSS captures variability of SSS at weekly time scales with reasonably good accuracy (RMSD: SMOS 0.25 PSU, SMAP 0.26 PSU), when excluding suspicious buoy data. Synergetic analysis of satellite SSS and Argo data indicates that satellite SSS can be applied as real‐time quality control of buoy 1‐m salinity data.

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Section: Comparison With Tropical Pacific Tao Buoyssupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Satellite‐Derived Sea Surface Salinity Products from SMOS, Aquarius, and SMAP

et al. 2019

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“…Our recent ability to document SSS from satellites, providing global coverage in less than 8 days at ~50‐ to 150‐km resolution, allows us to enrich our knowledge of SSS mesoscale variability. Notable in this regard are the key contributions of the SSS data sets issued from the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS; 2010 and ongoing), Aquarius (2011–2015), and Soil Moisture Active Passive (2015 and ongoing) satellite missions (Kerr et al, ; Lagerloef et al, ; Reul et al, ; Tang et al, ). Based on these satellite data sets, the signature of mesoscale variability and eddies on SSS has been documented in various regions, in particular, in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, in the Gulf Stream region, in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Bay of Bengal, in the southern Indian Ocean, and in line with the occurrence of tropical instability waves in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (Fournier et al, , ; Kolodziejczyk et al, ; Lee et al, , ; Melnichenko et al, ; Reul et al, ; Yin et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eddy‐Induced Salinity Changes in the Tropical Pacific

et al. 2019

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The signature of westward propagating mesoscale eddies in sea surface salinity (SSS) is analyzed for the tropical Pacific by collocating 7 years (2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016) of Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity SSS satellite data with coherent mesoscale eddies automatically identified and tracked from altimetry-derived sea level anomalies. First, the main characteristics of the long-lived coherent eddies are inferred from sea level anomalies maps. Then, the mean signature of the mesoscale eddies on SSS is depicted for the whole tropical Pacific before focusing in regions centered around the central and eastern parts of the tropical North Pacific. In these areas, composite analyses based on thousands of eddies reveal regionally dependent eddy impacts with opposite SSS anomalies for cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies. In the central region, where the largest meridional SSS large-scale gradients and smallest eddy amplitudes are observed, results show dipole-like SSS changes with maximum anomalies on the leading edge of the composite eddy. In contrast, in the eastern region, where the largest near-surface vertical salinity gradients and largest eddy amplitudes are observed, the composite eddy shows monopole-like SSS changes with maximum anomalies near the composite eddy center. These distinct dipole/monopole SSS patterns suggest the dominant role of horizontal advection and vertical processes in the central and eastern regions, respectively. Other possible explanations, notably one involving the contrasted eddy amplitudes of the two regions, are discussed.Plain Language Summary Sea surface salinity (SSS) is an Essential Climate Variable needed to improve our knowledge of the Earth's water cycle and climate. SSS has proven to be valuable for improving estimates of evaporation minus precipitation (E − P) budgets, describing and understanding climate variability at seasonal to decadal time scales, testing physical processes, assessing numerical model skills, quantifying the role of salinity on sea level change, improving El Nino prediction lead time, and quantifying the ocean-atmosphere CO 2 exchanges. Very few studies have, however, focused on what we call small-scale (that is mainly eddies of the order of 50-to 300-km radius) SSS changes in the open ocean, mainly due to the lack of high-resolution measurements. Relying on unprecedented satellite measurements of SSS, the present study shows how eddies in the tropical Pacific can modify the spatial distribution of SSS. We suggest that these modifications are likely due (i) to the rotational sense of the eddies, which move SSS horizontally, and (ii) to their capability to move or mix waters up and down while rotating.

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“…The newest V3.0 release of SMOS has bridged the accuracy gap between it and SMAP by increasing near‐land RFI parameterization and thus signal‐to‐noise ratio, although interference still remains an issue (Boutin et al, ). RFI parameterization has also increased with the most recent V4.2 release of SMAP‐CAP, which provided for more realistic SSS field particularly where Aquarius could not (Tang et al, ). This suggests that SMAP‐CAP and SMOS are more effective at capturing primary MJO signals than Aquarius‐CAP, although discrepancies may be attributable to near‐land noise parameterization, temporal sampling, and the number of primary events over the lifetime of the product.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Madden‐Julian Oscillation‐Induced Sea Surface Salinity Variability as Detected in Satellite‐Derived Salinity

Shoup

Subrahmanyam

Roman‐Stork

2019

Geophysical Research Letters

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As a dominant source of tropical variability, the Madden‐Julian oscillation (MJO) influences the ocean in many ways. One approach to observe the atmosphere‐ocean relationship is by examining sea surface salinity (SSS) due to direct freshening by MJO precipitation. The convectively enhanced (suppressed) phase of the MJO is associated with negative (positive) SSS anomalies that propagate eastward along the equatorial Indian and Pacific oceans. In this study, primary MJO events are identified, and their SSS signatures are compared for the first time across multiple satellite salinity products (the European Space Agency's Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Aquarius and Soil Moisture Active Passive) from 2010 to 2017. While all satellite missions are capable of detecting MJO signals and primary events on an unprecedented observational scale, we find that the use of the combined active passive algorithm increases signal robustness, with the strongest signal response in Soil Moisture Active Passive and Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (±0.2 psu) and the lowest in Aquarius (±0.1 psu).

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Validating SMAP SSS with in situ measurements

Cited by 22 publications

References 9 publications

Comparison of Satellite‐Derived Sea Surface Salinity Products from SMOS, Aquarius, and SMAP

Comparison of Satellite‐Derived Sea Surface Salinity Products from SMOS, Aquarius, and SMAP

Eddy‐Induced Salinity Changes in the Tropical Pacific

Madden‐Julian Oscillation‐Induced Sea Surface Salinity Variability as Detected in Satellite‐Derived Salinity

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