Sea Surface Salinity

Sea surface salinity observations contribute to monitoring the global water cycle (evaporation, precipitation and glacier and river runoff). On large scales, surface salinity can be used to infer long-term changes of the global hydrological cycle. Surface salinity, together with surface temperature, is indicative of the surface expression of ocean frontal features and eddies.

Sea Surface Salinity Map

Figure: NASA Aquarius Mission - SMAP Sea Surface Salinity, April 2016.

Source: https://aquarius.umaine.edu/cgi/gal_smap.htm


ECV Products and Requirements

These products and requirements reflect the Implementation Plan 2022 (GCOS-244).

The requirements are found in the complete 2022 ECVs Requirements document as well: ECV Sea-Surface Salinity.

Products Sea-surface Salinity
 (*)UnitValues
Horizontal ResolutionGkm10
B 
T50-100
Vertical ResolutionG -
B-
T-
Temporal ResolutionGd1-3
B 
T7
TimelinessGd7
B 
T30
Required Measurement Uncertainty (2-sigma)G10.1
B 
T0.2
StabilityG1/decade0.01
B 
T0.1

(*) Goal (G): an ideal requirement above which further improvements are not necessary. Breakthrough (B): an intermediate level between threshold and goal which, if achieved, would result in a significant improvement for the targeted application. The breakthrough value may also indicate the level at which specified uses within climate monitoring become possible. It may be appropriate to have different breakthrough values for different uses. Threshold (T): the minimum requirement to be met to ensure that data are useful

Data sources

This list provides sources for openly accessible data sets with worldwide coverage for which metadata is available. It is curated by the respective GCOS ECV Steward(s). The list does not claim to be complete. Anyone with a suitable dataset who wishes it to be added to this list should contact the abombelliatwmo [dot] int (GCOS Secretariat).

Sea surface salinity
النطاق:
Ocean
Subdomain:
Physical
Scientific Area:
Physical Properties
ECV Steward:
Tony Lee
Products:
Sea Surface Salinity