Researchers at the Barcelona Expert Center (BEC) of the Institut de Ciencies del Mar (ICM-CSIS) have improved their marine circulation prediction in the Arctic with satellite derived salinity measurements.
The team has incorporated sea salinity data obtained from measurements by the European Space Agency (ESA) SMOS satellite into the TOPAZ Arctic prediction model, which assimilates in situ data and is used by the Arctic Monitoring and Forecasting Center (ARC-MFC), distributed by Copernicus. This service produces near real-time forecasts of physical ocean and sea ice conditions, among other products.
“The assimilation of the sea surface salinity maps has a strong impact on the model,” explain the BEC and TOPAZ managers.
Seawater salinity is a parameter that depends on precipitation, evaporation, river discharges and ice melt, and has a direct impact on the climate. Together with temperature, salinity determines the density of the water which, in turn, drives global ocean circulation and regulates the Earth’s climate. However, measuring it in situ is not easy, especially in areas as remote as the Arctic Ocean, which is why the information provided by satellites is so valuable.
“We measure salinity using passive microwave remote sensing, which captures the electromagnetic energy emitted by surfaces and which, in the case of the ocean, depends on temperature and salinity,” explains Justino Martinez, researcher at the ICM-CSIC.
“The importance of having reliable and accurate data on sea salinity lies in the fact that it influences the density of the sea, thus affecting ocean circulation. It is also a fundamental indicator for the study of changes in freshwater flows that have been observed in some regions of the Arctic Ocean due to ice melting, which can influence the global climate”, says the ICM-CSIC researcher Carolina Gabarró.
https://phys.org/news/2022-02-satellite-derived-salinity-arctic-marine-circulation.html