AXIOM-1 Sea Surface Salinity, Sea Ice Thickness and Atmospheric Precipitable Water

This data visualization shows sea surface salinity (i.e., ocean salt concentration) over a ten year period (2011 to 2021). Warm colors (orange to yellow) are areas of high salinity/hot tropics. Cooler colors (blue to violet) are fresher waters, many of which can be seen coming from rainy/river/wetter tropics. Sea Surface Salinity (i.e., ocean salt) colorbar. Date overlay for above data visualization. Example composite animation using the colorbar and date overlays. The heat of the sun forces evaporation at the ocean's surface, which puts water vapor into the atmosphere but leaves minerals and salts behind, keeping the ocean salty. The salinity of the ocean also varies from place to place, because evaporation varies based on the sea surface temperature and wind, rivers and rain storms inject fresh water into the ocean, and melting or freezing sea ice affects the salinity of polar waters. Related pages

AXIOM-1 (eXperimental Analysis of sea Ice and Ocean Mesoscale version 1) is a coupled analysis of the global ocean and sea ice obtained by assimilating Aquarius sea surface salinity (SSS) and MODIS chlorophyll data together with sea surface temperature (SST) and sea ice concentrations from the OSTIA objective analysis into a global high-resolution coupled ocean/ atmosphere/sea ice model. The coupled model components are the MOM-5 ocean general circulation model, the GEOS-5 atmospheric general circulation model and the CICE sea ice model. The ocean and sea ice model horizontal resolutions vary from 11km to less than 3km in the Arctic and the atmospheric model resolution is the same as that used to produce the GMAO operational weather forecasts (25km).As a preamble to a fully coupled integrated earth system analysis, the atmospheric model is constrained to the GMAO MERRA-2 atmospheric reanalysis (prior to June 2013) and to the GMAO operational forward processing stream (after June 2013) while the SST, SSS, ice concentration and chlorophyll data are assimilated into the coupled model using a new methodology [State Adaptive Forecast-error Estimation (SAFE): https://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/pubs/docs/Keppenne721.pdf] developed especially for high-resolution data assimilation.This animation shows the ocean surface chlorophyll concentration and sea ice thickness fields (shown over grid cells where the fractional ice coverage is greater than 15%) and the vertical integral of atmospheric precipitable water (transparent overlay) sampled every 6 hours from January 1, 2013 to November 1, 2014 from a reanalysis completed with the AXIOM-1 system. The chlorophyll concentration is proportional to the ocean biomass and primary production and influences how deep solar radiation can heat the ocean sub-surface which needs to be accounted for in numerical ocean models. This animation shows ocean surface chlorophyll concentration, sea ice thickness, and atmospheric precipitable water. Related pages

AXIOM-1 (eXperimental Analysis of sea Ice and Ocean Mesoscale version 1) is a coupled analysis of the global ocean and sea ice obtained by assimilating Aquarius sea surface salinity (SSS) and MODIS chlorophyll data together with sea surface temperature (SST) and sea ice concentrations (SIC) from the OSTIA objective analysis into a high-resolution version of the MOM-5 ocean general circulation model (OGCM) coupled to the CICE sea ice model (IGCM) and to the GEOS-5 atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM). The OGCM and IGCM horizontal resolutions vary from 11km to less than 3km in the Arctic. The AGCM resolution is the same as that used to produce the GMAO operational weather forecasts (25km).As a preamble to a fully coupled integrated earth system analysis, the AGCM is constrained to the GMAO MERRA-2 atmospheric reanalysis (prior to June 2013) and to the GMAO operational forward processing stream (after June 2013) while the SST, SSS, SIC and chlorophyll observations are assimilated into the coupled model using a new methodology (SAFE: Spatially Adaptive Forecast-error Estimation) developed especially for high-resolution data assimilation.This animation shows the OGCM SST and IGCM ice thickness fields (The latter is shown over grid cells where the fractional ice coverage is greater than 15%) and the vertical integral of AGCM precipitable water (transparent overlay). These fields are sampled every 6 hours from June 1, 2012 to October 22, 2014 from a reanalysis completed with the AXIOM-1 system. Most tropical cyclones are identifiable by the SST cooling they induce. This animation shows sea surface temperature, ice thickness, and atmospheric precipitable water. Related pages