NASA Aquarius Reveals Findings From One Year of Measuring Earth's Salty Seas
Posted on February 28, 2013
NASA has released the first full year of validated ocean surface salinity data from its Aquarius instrument, which is aboard the Aquarius/SAC-D spacecraft. The Aquarius mission to study ocean surface salinity from space is a collaboration between NASA and the Space Agency of Argentina. The data released covers Dec. 2011 through Dec. 2012. Red colors on the image represent areas of high salinity, while blue shades represent areas of low salinity. You can find a larger version of the above image here.
NASA also released the following video, which explains the mission, the findings and which bodies of water have the highest salinity. A large area of highly saline water can be found in the North Atlantic. NASA says this area is the saltiest anywhere in the open ocean. Take a look:
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