![]() ![]() These mean patterns are a response to the changes in the ocean circulation and the ocean water cycle – the net sum of precipitation, evaporation, and terrestrial river and groundwater runoff, as well as the formation and melting of glacial and sea ice. ![]() Ocean basins vary in terms of their salinity ( Figure 1), with the Atlantic being the saltiest ocean and the Pacific the freshest ( Gordon et al., 2015). Despite this small range, salinity variations have a profound effect on global ocean circulation and Earth’s climate and ecosystems. Wunsch (2015) finds the mean salinity of the entire ocean to be 34.78, with a standard deviation of only 0.37 and over 90% of sea water falling within the salinity range of 34 to 36. Sea water is approximately a 3.5% salt solution ( Durack et al., 2013 Pawlowicz et al., 2016), corresponding to a salinity of 35 1, the remaining 96.5% being freshwater. Introduction: Remote Sensing of Salty Oceans We also discuss the need for technological innovations to improve the accuracy, resolution, and coverage of satellite SSS, and the way forward to both continue and enhance salinity remote sensing as part of the integrated Earth Observing System in order to address societal needs. In this paper, we provide a community perspective on the major achievements of satellite SSS for the aforementioned topics, the unique capability of satellite salinity observing system and its complementarity with other platforms, uncertainty characteristics of satellite SSS, and measurement versus sampling errors in relation to in situ salinity measurements. This is critical to addressing societally relevant topics, such as land-sea linkages, coastal-open ocean exchanges, research in the carbon cycle, near-surface mixing, and air-sea exchange of gas and mass. In particular, salinity remote sensing has proven valuable to systematically monitor the open oceans as well as coastal regions up to approximately 40 km from the coasts. The satellite SSS data are complimentary to the existing in situ systems such as Argo that provide accurate depiction of large-scale salinity variability in the open ocean but under-sample mesoscale variability, coastal oceans and marginal seas, and energetic regions such as boundary currents and fronts. Measurements from these missions are the only means to probe the very-near surface salinity (top cm), providing a unique monitoring capability for the interfacial exchanges of water between the atmosphere and the upper-ocean, and delivering a wealth of information on various salinity processes in the ocean, linkages with the climate and water cycle, including land-sea connections, and providing constraints for ocean prediction models.
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