June 11, 2019
Evolution of GOES-East IR, NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) sea surface salinity (SSS), and NASA Multi-Scale Ultra-High Resolution (MUR) sea surface temperature (SST) response to the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season response. (MUR SST DOI: 10.5067/GHGMR-4FJ04; SMAP SSS DOI: 10.5067/SMP42-3TPCS).
January 30, 2019
Evolution of the NASA Multi-Scale Ultra-High Resolution (MUR) sea surface temperature (SST) response to Hurricanes Florence, Helene and Isaac of 2018. It is common to observe trails of cooler water, or cold wakes, along hurricane tracks as a result of wind-induced mixing and turbulence that brings cold waters at depth to the surface. The cold wakes associated with Florence, Helene, and Isaac are clearly observed as waters approximately 2°C cooler from normal along the hurricane track that persisted for several days. (MUR SST DOI: 10.5067/GHGMR-4FJ04).
January 25, 2019
Animation of global sea surface salinity (SSS) over the period 04-04-2015 to 31-12-2018 based on the 8-day running mean version 4.2 SMAP Level 3 product from JPL. (SMAP SSS DOI: 10.5067/SMP42-3TPCS).
December 7, 2018
(Top-left panel) Saildrone sea water salinity data overlays the sea surface salinity map from SMAP RSS Level 3 V3 70 km 8-day running mean (SMAP SSS DOI: 10.5067/SMP3A-3SPCS). (Top-right panel) Saildrone sea surface temperature (SST) data overlays the SST map from GHRSST Level 4 MUR V4.1 (MUR SST DOI: 10.5067/GHGMR-4FJ04). (Bottom-left panel) Saildrone sea water salinity data (black line), SMAP SSS data (green line), and Saildrone chlorophyll concentration (red line). (Bottom-right plot) Saildrone SST (black line), MUR SST (green line), and Saildrone sea water bulk temperature (red line). (Saildrone DOI: 10.5067/SDRON-SURF0).
November 16, 2018
Evolution of the SMAP sea surface salinity (SSS) and soil moisture responses to Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria of 2017. The ocean salinity response to hurricanes is a combination of two competing effects: 1) salinity freshening due to enhanced precipitation and 2) salinity increase due to wind stress-generated vertical mixing, wherein increased salinity from a mid-level maximum (found in typical salinity profiles) is brought to the surface. The two effects are clearly observed along the tracks of Harvey, Irma, and Maria.
October 30, 2018
The Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) is a NASA Earth System Science Pathfinder Mission that is intended to collect the first frequent space‐based measurements of surface wind speeds in the inner core of tropical cyclones. Made up of a constellation of eight micro-satellites, the observatories provide nearly gap-free Earth coverage using an orbital inclination of approximately 35° from the equator, with a mean (i.e., average) revisit time of seven hours and a median revisit time of three hours. This inclination allows CYGNSS to measure ocean surface winds between approximately 38° N and 38° S latitude.
July 27, 2018
Animation of global sea surface salinity (SSS) over the period 27 August 2011 to 14 May 2015 based on the Aquarius OI-SSS Level 4 7-day version 5.0 product from the International Pacific Research Center of University of Hawaii (IPRC). (Aquarius SSS DOI: 10.5067/AQR50-4U7CS).
May 4, 2018
Animation of global sea surface salinity (SSS) over the period 27 March 2015 to 16 April 2018 based on the 8-day running mean version 2.0 SMAP product from Remote Sensing Systems at a spatial resolution of 70 km. (SMAP SSS DOI: 10.5067/SMP2A-3SPCS).
May 4, 2018
Animation of sea surface salinity (SSS) over the period 27 March 2015 to 16 April 2018 based on the 8-day running mean version 2.0 SMAP product from Remote Sensing Systems at a spatial resolution of 70 km. (SMAP SSS DOI: 10.5067/SMP2A-3SPCS).
December 5, 2016
For over 20 years, satellite altimeters have measured the sea surface height of our ever-changing oceans. This series of images shows the complicated patterns of rising and falling ocean levels across the globe from 1993 to 2015. Sea levels reflect changing currents (which tilt the sea surface), the redistribution of heat (which makes sea levels higher) and the long term rise in global sea levels that is the result of human-caused warming. The globally averaged rise is traced out in the bottom right-hand corner. These maps are made using data from at least two satellites at all times, and colors represent highs and lows between 30 cm of normal levels.