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The Earth's Hydrological Cycle pp 681–722Cite as

Sea Surface Salinity Observations from Space with the SMOS Satellite: A New Means to Monitor the Marine Branch of the Water Cycle

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Part of the book series: Space Sciences Series of ISSI ((SSSI,volume 46))

Abstract

While it is well known that the ocean is one of the most important component of the climate system, with a heat capacity 1,100 times greater than the atmosphere, the ocean is also the primary reservoir for freshwater transport to the atmosphere and largest component of the global water cycle. Two new satellite sensors, the ESA Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) and the NASA Aquarius SAC-D missions, are now providing the first space-borne measurements of the sea surface salinity (SSS). In this paper, we present examples demonstrating how SMOS-derived SSS data are being used to better characterize key land–ocean and atmosphere–ocean interaction processes that occur within the marine hydrological cycle. In particular, SMOS with its ocean mapping capability provides observations across the world’s largest tropical ocean fresh pool regions, and we discuss from intraseasonal to interannual precipitation impacts as well as large-scale river runoff from the Amazon–Orinoco and Congo rivers and its offshore advection. Synergistic multi-satellite analyses of these new surface salinity data sets combined with sea surface temperature, dynamical height and currents from altimetry, surface wind, ocean color, rainfall estimates, and in situ observations are shown to yield new freshwater budget insight. Finally, SSS observations from the SMOS and Aquarius/SAC-D sensors are combined to examine the response of the upper ocean to tropical cyclone passage including the potential role that a freshwater-induced upper ocean barrier layer may play in modulating surface cooling and enthalpy flux in tropical cyclone track regions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire d’Océanographie Spatiale, Institut Français de recherche et d’Exploitation de la Mer, Centre Bretagne BP 70, 29280, Plouzané, France

    Nicolas Reul, Severine Fournier, Bertrand Chapron & Yves Quilfen

  2. Centre Méditerranée, Zone Portuaire de Brégaillon, BP 330, 83507, La Seyne-sur-Mer Cedex, France

    Nicolas Reul

  3. Laboratoire d’Océanographie et du Climat: Expérimentation et Approches Numériques, UMR 7159 CNRS/UPMC/IRD/MNHN, Paris, France

    Jaqueline Boutin, Olga Hernandez & Simmon Morisset

  4. LEGOS, OMP, CNAP, Université Toulouse, Toulouse, France

    Christophe Maes & Gaël Alory

  5. CLS-Radar Division, Bâtiment Le Ponant, Avenue La Pérouse, Technopôle Brest-Iroise, 29280, Plouzané, France

    Joseph Tenerelli

  6. CESBIO, Toulouse, France

    Yann Kerr

  7. ESA-ESRIN, Frascatti, Italy

    Susanne Mecklenburg & Steven Delwart

Authors
  1. Nicolas Reul
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  2. Severine Fournier
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  3. Jaqueline Boutin
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  4. Olga Hernandez
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  5. Christophe Maes
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  6. Bertrand Chapron
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  7. Gaël Alory
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  8. Yves Quilfen
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  9. Joseph Tenerelli
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  10. Simmon Morisset
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  11. Yann Kerr
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  12. Susanne Mecklenburg
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  13. Steven Delwart
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicolas Reul .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. International Space Science Institute, Hallerstrasse 6, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Lennart Bengtsson , R.-M. Bonnet  & M. Calisto ,  & 

  2. Stockholm University, Svante Arrhenius väg 8, 10691, Stockholm, Sweden

    G. Destouni

  3. University of Reading, Earley Gate 3, RG6 6AL, Reading, United Kingdom

    R. Gurney

  4. Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, Thormøhlens gate 47, 5006, Bergen, Norway

    J. Johannessen

  5. Center for the Study of the Biosphere from Space, Avenue Edouard Belin 18, 31401, Toulouse, France

    Y. Kerr

  6. Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Instituttveien 18, 2027, Kjeller, Norway

    W.A. Lahoz

  7. ESA-ESRIN, Via Galileo Galilei, 00044, Frascati, Italy

    M. Rast

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© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Reul, N. et al. (2013). Sea Surface Salinity Observations from Space with the SMOS Satellite: A New Means to Monitor the Marine Branch of the Water Cycle. In: Bengtsson, L., et al. The Earth's Hydrological Cycle. Space Sciences Series of ISSI, vol 46. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8789-5_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8789-5_10

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  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-8788-8

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