COLLOQUIUM
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University of South Carolina

Measuring Ocean Salinity from Space
Subrahmanyam Bulusu
Marine Science Program & Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences
University of South Carolina

Date: April 25, 2013
Time: 1400-1500 (2:00pm-3:00pm)
Place: Swearingen 1A03 (Faculty Lounge)

Abstract

Salt plays an important role in our daily lives. True, salt makes our
food tastier, but perhaps its most significant role is as an
ingredient in Earth's climate. A measurement of sea surface salinity,
or the concentration of salt at the ocean’s surface, gives us vital
information on global ocean circulation and how fresh water moves
between the ocean and other reservoirs through the water cycle, the
process by which water circulates from the ocean, to the atmosphere,
to the land, and then back to the ocean. In the past, researchers
assumed that salinity did not play a significant role in the dynamics
and thermodynamics of the oceans because it has little variation in
the global oceans. Salinity and temperature together affect the
density of seawater, and its circulation. Though temperature has been
measured extensively, both in-situ and remotely sensed, salinity
observations have been lacking. Regular in-situ salinity measurements
have been restricted to just a small fraction of the oceans. Most of
these measurements have been by ships-of-opportunity along major
shipping lines. Due to these limited measurements, basin-scale
processes and variability studies that require the incorporation of
salinity data have been a challenge. The launch of the European Space
Agency’s (ESA) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite in
November 2009, and the United State’s NASA and Space Agency of
Argentina’s (CONAE; Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales)
Aquarius/ Satellite de Aplicaciones Cientificas (SAC)-D satellite
mission in June 2011, opened a new era for providing global oceans
salinity observations, which will improve our understanding of
salinity variability and dynamics. SMOS has been designed to observe
soil moisture over the Earth's landmasses and salinity over the
oceans. Aquarius/SAC-D science objectives seek to provide high quality
salinity data that will help enhance the study of ocean circulation,
the global hydrological cycle, climate variability, land processes,
land use, soil moisture, natural hazards, health applications,
cryosphere, etc.

Dr. Subrahmanyam (Subra) Bulusu is an Associate Professor, with
appointments in the Marine Science Program and the Department of Earth
and Ocean Sciences at the University of South Carolina. He obtained
his Ph.D. from the University of Southampton, UK in 1998, did two-year
postdoctoral work at the Florida State University, and then became
Research faculty at FSU until 2005. He joined USC in August, 2005 as
an Assistant Professor and became an Associate Professor with tenure
in 2009. Since his arrival at USC, he has established a state-of-the
art Satellite Oceanography Laboratory in the Department of Earth and
Ocean Sciences. Last year he was appointed as the USC campus Director
for the NASA/SC Space Grant Consortium. He was awarded the prestigious
Breakthrough Rising Star designation at USC in 2013.