Surface seawater salinty plays a great role in ocean circulation and Earth's water cycle. The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinty mission by the European Space Agency ESA, SMOS, helps scientists and researchers understand this relationship better by measuring seawater salinity from space.
ESA explains: "The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite, SMOS, is monitoring changes in the amount of water held in the surface layers of soil and concentrations of salt in the top layer of seawater – both of which are a consequence of the continuous exchange of water between the oceans, the atmosphere and the land. Along with temperature, salinity drives ocean circulation, which, in turn, plays a key role in the global climate."
Nicolas Reul from the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea, Ifremer, said, “Using SMOS salinity data we have been able to determine and monitor for the first time from space an ensemble of key ocean processes for climate and biochemistry. This includes, for example, the detailed salinity structure of tropical instability waves along the equator and the salt exchanged across major oceanic current fronts through energetic ocean rings."
