PASADENA, Calif., June 2 (UPI) -- A NASA instrument will measure salt levels in Earth's oceans, a factor considered a key driver of ocean processes and the word's climate, researchers say.
The Aquarius instrument, set to launch this month aboard a satellite built by Argentina's space agency, will use its salt-seeking sensors to make comprehensive measurements of ocean surface salinity with the precision needed to help researchers better determine how Earth's ocean interacts with the atmosphere to influence climate, a release for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said Thursday.
This salinity is a key indicator of how Earth's freshwater moves between the ocean, land and atmosphere, the release said.
"We ultimately want to predict climate change and have greater confidence in our predictions," Aquarius principal investigator Gary Lagerloef said. "But, a climate model's forecast skill is only as good as its ability to accurately represent modern-day observations."
Density-driven ocean circulation, Lagerloef said, is controlled as much by salinity as by ocean temperature.
Sea salt makes up only 3.5 percent of the world's ocean, but its relatively small presence introduces huge consequences.
"Aquarius, and successor missions based on it, will give us, over time, critical data that will be used by models that study how Earth's ocean and atmosphere interact, to see trends in climate," said Lagerloef. "The advances this mission will enable make this an exciting time in climate research."
