Aquarius Sea Surface Temperature 2011 - 2015

  • Released Wednesday, September 23, 2015
  • Updated Tuesday, December 5, 2017 at 4:55PM
  • ID: 4332

Aquarius is an international effort to measure sea surface salinity and learn about the interaction between ocean circulation, the water cycle and climate. Besides salinity, Aquarius also measures sea surface temperature because salinity and temperature determines seawater density and buoyancy. Sea-surface density drives formation of ocean water masses and three-dimensional ocean circulation. Thus better understanding of ocean salinity and temperature improves understanding of the ocean's capacity to store and transport heat. The animation shows the changes of sea surface temporature from September 7, 2011 to May 20, 2015.
Aquarius color bar showing sea surface temperature from -2 to 45 celsius, going from purple to green to dark red.

Aquarius color bar showing sea surface temperature from -2 to 45 celsius, going from purple to green to dark red.



Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio


Datasets used in this visualization

Aquarius SSS (A.K.A. Sea Surface Salinity) (Collected with the Microwave Radiometer sensor)
Observed DataNASA

Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.


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