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Zhang, Y., Bayler, E.J., and Baker-Yeboah, S. (16-Dec-16)

The NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), as the US archive for oceanographic data, provides long-term data stewardship of in situ sea-surface salinity (SSS) data, including near-real-time and delayed-mode products. These high quality in situ observations enable monitoring and validating Level-2 satellite data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Soil Moisture – Ocean Salinity (SMOS), the National Aeronautics and Space Agency’s (NASA) Aquarius mission, and NASA’s Soil Moisture Active-Passive (SMAP) mission. This effort begins with identifying match-ups between satellite retrievals and in situ observations from the real-time Global Temperature and Salinity Profile Programme (GTSPP) and NCEI’s delayed-mode World Ocean Database (WOD). An in-depth study is then conducted, examining the differences between satellite and in situ SSS observation for errors, biases, uncertainties, and trends. These ongoing match-up results will be used to monitor performance of each satellite and trigger alerts with respect to data quality issues. Methodologies and analyses for this effort are presented.