SMOS satellite map manages moisture and ocean salinity … – Daily Mail

The SMOS mission European Space Agency (ESA) has been dubbed the “Mission Water” and has already achieved its two main objectives: measurements the global ocean salinity and soil moisture every three days, but not exclusively.

This is one of the main conclusions of the second conference of science SMOS , a satellite of three branches and 72 antennas.

SMOS was released in November 2009 and has since sent to the antennas of the ESA in Villanueva de la Cañada and Kiruna (Sweden) data for calculate ocean salinity and surface moisture important to better understand ocean circulation and the water cycle or deepen in preventing hurricanes and fires.

The salt , which has the peculiarity that s olo is modified by exchange with the atmosphere is one of the two variables that defines the density of water Sea , the other is the temperature .

The satellites measure the latter decades, however so far had not been achieved with salinity, told Efe Jordi Font, co-lead investigator of SMOS, the Institute of Marine Sciences (Higher Council for Scientific Research).

The density differences are what keep the great ocean currents as Font, for whom know the ocean circulation and the water cycle -evaporación, clouds, rainfall, moisture-allows scientists to better understand how it is affecting and will affect the climate change , and it serves to improve weather and climate models.

For example, SMOS has shed light on the evolution of meandering Gulf Stream, one of the systems most studied streams, originating in the Caribbean and flows into the North Atlantic.

SMOS has also found that the ocean surface salinity is affected by a hurricane. Igor 2010 caused the water in the mouth of the Amazon to increase its salinity when mixed with deeper and saltwater

Data from this satellite, according Font, they complement those offered by 3,000 buoys with sensors thrown into the sea within the Argo project (more precise in measuring salinity satellite but with less capacity for global data).

As for salinity data “I do not think we’ll find surprises,” but the important thing was to demonstrate that this component can be measured from space continuously and with a higher resolution than any of the buoys, confirmed Font.

Another thing that measures SMOS is the amount of water stored in the vegetation, which is used for example to evaluate agricultural production or assess risk Fire.

The goal in the future, predicting fires in forest areas and their size.