NASA goes below the surface to understand salinity
Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - 10:00
in Astronomy & Space
(PhysOrg.com) -- When NASA's Aquarius mission launches this week, its radiometer instruments will take a "skin" reading of the oceans' salt content at the surface. From these data of salinity in the top 0.4 inch (1 centimeter) of the ocean surface, Aquarius will create weekly and monthly maps of ocean surface salinity all over the globe for at least three years. To better understand what's driving changes and fluctuations in salinity -- and how those changes relate to an acceleration of the global water cycle and climate change -- scientists will go deeper.