ARGO AND SMOS SSS COMBINATION HELPS MONITORING SSS VARIABILITY FROM BASIN SCALE TO MESOSCALE
By N. Kolodziejczyk et al. (see Mercator Ocean-Coriolis Quaterly Newsletter)
Using a 4-year time-series of SMOS SSS data (mid-2010 to mid-2014) and the global Argo array of in situ measurements as reference data base, a statistical approach and Optimal Interpolation are used to characterize and to correct a large part of the biases and reduce the noise. The results are promising and it shows the strong complementarity between SMOS and Argo data.
Figure 1 In situ and SMOS SSS comparison (0.25°-10 day) statistics along the available TSG transects between 2011-2013 (a): Bias (b); Root Mean Square Difference (c); and correlation (d) for 10 days L3 SMOS LOCEAN products (gray crosses) and SMOS OI (circle). Differences between SMOS L3 and SMOS OI is identified by a gray vertical segment. The color of the circle refers to the merchant ship (Black: M.S. Colibri; red: M.S. Toucan, blue: M.S. Santa-Cruz; green: UK VOS)