NASA On Air: NASA's Aquarius Measures Ocean Salinity (3/13/2014)

  • Released Thursday, March 13, 2014
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LEAD: NASA's Aquarius instrument is observing the saltiness of the ocean surface from space.

  1. Bright orange colors = very salty. Blue = lower saltiness.

  2. Flying 400 miles above Earth, Aquarius can detect a change as little as a pinch of salt in a gallon of water.

  3. Scientists are studying why some hurricanes that pass over the Amazon River plume of lower saltiness tend to get stronger.

TAG: Aquarius should help with El Niño forecasting as well.

More information: http://aquarius.umaine.edu/cgi/sci_results.htm

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Thursday, March 13, 2014.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:51 PM EDT.