Monday, October 3, 2011

The First Map of Sea Salinity

Apparently not all seawater has a salinity level of the same. Waters in the Atlantic, for instance, contain levels of salt are much higher than the waters surrounding Indonesia.

The difference can be seen in the salinity level map made the U.S. space agency (NASA), This is the first map of the salinity of the ocean. Its function is to help people understand different things, ranging global rainfall until the ocean currents. The map produced by the Aquarius / SAC-D, an earth orbiting satellites equipped with special radio measurements. The entire image is sent Aquarius during the first two weeks of work was then compiled into a map of the globe that is easy to understand.
Aquarius/SAC-D Satellite artist conception from orbit over southern Patagonia.
The background image is based on SeaWiFS data. (Picture from: http://www.esr.org/)
NASA map shows the levels of salt in the ocean, which is distinguished by the color intensity. Areas that are red and yellow have higher salinity levels, while the blue and purple have a lower salinity. Dark areas mark the data void.
Map of the world's water salinity released by NASA's Aquarius. Yellow and red colors on the map indicate areas of higher salinity while blues and purples represent areas with lower salinity. (Picture from: http://www.zmescience.com/)
With these data, researchers obtain a more detailed picture of climate patterns such as how the movement of fresh water around the world. The movement of fresh water that was also affecting the ocean circulation.

This map is only a small portion of the satellite measurements, which was launched in June 2011 and then, and began operations on August 25, 2011. In the future, the satellite is expected to reveal more secrets of the ocean.

The existence of differences in levels of salt in a large ocean, such as the Pacific and Indian oceans, is already clearly visible. But there are a variety of features, such as river water that comes out of the Amazon River.

Very contrasting differences seen in the Arabian Sea, dry da has a high salinity in the west of the Indian subcontinent and the Bay of Bengal on the east side of low salinity, which is dominated by the River Ganges and the South Asia monsoon rains.

To measure the difference in salinity of the sea from the earth's orbit, the satellite is equipped with three radio receivers that record the microwave emissions from the surface of the water. Changes in emissions are highly determined by the conductivity of water, which is closely related to how much salt is dissolved in it.

Before there was Aquarius, scientists must use a variety of instruments that should dicemplungkan from ships into the water. In addition to time consuming, the data can be collected using this method is also very limited. With Aquarius, NASA can now create maps that normally takes up to several months with much lebili accurate.

Aquarius can measure the salinity of the sea to count grams per kilogram of sea water. The range of ocean salinity levels measured between 32 and 37 ppt, but NASA hopes to reduce up to 0.2 ppt or until the first milliliters of salt in 6 quarts of water.

"Aquarius revealed a pattern of sea surface salinity with a rich range of variability with a broad scale," said team member Gordon Aquarius Arnold, professor of oceanography at Columbia University in Palisades, New York. "This major event in the history of oceanography."

Aquarius principal investigator, Gary Lagerloef, stating Aquarius salinity data show a much higher quality than what was estimated originally at the beginning of the mission. "With Aquarius, someday scientists can explore the relationship between global rainfall, precipitation, and climate variations," he said. *** [TJANDRA DEWI | NASA | KORAN TEMPO 3560]

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