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The Impact of the Assimilation of Aquarius Sea Surface Salinity Data in the GEOS Ocean Data Assimilation SystemOcean salinity and temperature differences drive thermohaline circulations. These properties also play a key role in the ocean-atmosphere coupling. With the availability of L-band space-borne observations, it becomes possible to provide global scale sea surface salinity (SSS) distribution. This study analyzes globally the along-track (Level 2) Aquarius SSS retrievals obtained using both passive and active L-band observations. Aquarius alongtrack retrieved SSS are assimilated into the ocean data assimilation component of Version 5 of the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS-5) assimilation and forecast model. We present a methodology to correct the large biases and errors apparent in Version 2.0 of the Aquarius SSS retrieval algorithm and map the observed Aquarius SSS retrieval into the ocean models bulk salinity in the topmost layer. The impact of the assimilation of the corrected SSS on the salinity analysis is evaluated by comparisons with insitu salinity observations from Argo. The results show a significant reduction of the global biases and RMS of observations-minus-forecast differences at in-situ locations. The most striking results are found in the tropics and southern latitudes. Our results highlight the complementary role and problems that arise during the assimilation of salinity information from in-situ (Argo) and space-borne surface (SSS) observations
Document ID
20140012074
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Vernieres, Guillaume Rene Jean (Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Lanham, MD, United States)
Kovach, Robin M. (Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Lanham, MD, United States)
Keppenne, Christian L. (Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Lanham, MD, United States)
Akella, Santharam (Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Lanham, MD, United States)
Brucker, Ludovic (Universities Space Research Association Columbia, MD, United States)
Dinnat, Emmanuel Phillippe (Chapman Univ. Orange, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
September 18, 2014
Publication Date
March 27, 2014
Publication Information
Publisher: Wiley
Subject Category
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN14180
Funding Number(s)
WBS: WBS 802678.02.17.01.25
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNX10AV23G
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNG12HP06C
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNG11HP16A
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
Salinty
SSS
GEOS 5

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