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The advent of ocean-observing satellites has launched a new era of marine discovery. Satellite-based oceanography has helped us understand the pattern and effects of El Niño and La Niña , helping to forecast and mitigate the disastrous effects of floods and drought. Likewise, using remote sensing data and computer models , scientists can now investigate how the oceans affect the evolution of weather, hurricanes, and climate . Other beneficiaries of the "satellite oceanography age" include ship routers, fisheries managers, marine mammalogists, and coral reef researchers.
Starting in 2010 Aquarius will measure Sea Surface Salinity (SSS), a critical climate-sensitive variable not previously mapped from space. Salinity is a missing variable that -- along with satellites that measure ocean currents (e.g., TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1 ), sea surface temperature (e.g., AVHRR ) and winds (e.g., QuikSCAT), and ocean color (e.g., SeaWiFS, MODIS ) -- will yield a complete set of surface observations to study how global ocean circulation responds to climate change. Moreover, as salinity is a key surface tracer of fresh water input to output from the ocean, SSS also provides much-needed information for global water cycle research. Thus Aquarius data will augment spaceborne measurements of precipitation, evaporation , soil moisture, atmospheric water vapor, and sea ice extent.
Glossary Words
atmosphere: Gaseous layer surrounding a planet; the whole mass of air surrounding the earth.
climate: The prevailing or normal pattern of weather at a place, or in a region, averaged over a long period of time; in contrast to weather, which is the state of the atmosphere at a particular time.
evaporation: The physical process of converting a liquid to a gas. Commonly considered to occur at a temperature below the boiling point of the liquid.
fresh water: Non-saline water.
model: System of data, inferences, and relationships, presented as a description of a process or entity.
molecule: The simplest structural unit displaying the characteristic physical and chemical properties of a compound.
precipitation: Water released from the atmosphere in the form of rain, snow, hail, or sleet from the atmosphere onto Earth's surface.
runoff: The downward movement of surface water under gravity in channels ranging from small rills to large rivers.
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