The Contribution of the Vendée Globe Race to Improved Ocean Surface Information. A Validation of the Remotely Sensed Salinity in the Sub-Antarctic Zone

• Main Authors: Umbert, Marta, Hoareau, Nina, Salat, Jordi, Salvador, Joaquín, Guimbard, Sébastien, Olmedo, Estrella, Gabarró, Carolina
• Other Authors: European Commission, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España)
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Sea Surface Temperature and Salinity; Ocean circumnavigation; Ships of opportunity; SMOS; Antarctic; Indian; Las Palmas; Pacific; Patagonia; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/304056

This work represents a contribution to 95 CSIC Thematic Interdisciplinary Platform PTI POLAR and TELEDETECT.-- VII Encuentro de Oceanografía Física (EOF) - Expanding Ocean Frontiers Conference, VIII International Symposium on Marine Sciences, 6-8 July 2022, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, España The Vendée Globe is the world's most famous solo, non-stop unassisted sailing race. The Institute of Marine Sciences and the Barcelona Ocean Sailing Foundation, decided to install a MicroCT to the One Ocean One Planet Spanish boat raced by Dídac Costa. He completed the round trip in 97 days, from November, 8th of 2020 to February 13th of 2021, providing 1 measurement of surface temperature and conductivity every 30 seconds during navigation. More than half of the ship’s trajectory was lying on sub- Antarctic zone, between the tropical and polar fronts crossing areas of oceanographic interest such as the Southern Patagonia (affected by glacier melting), Brazil-Malvinas confluence, the Southern Pacific Ocean, near the Nemo Point (the farthest point in the ocean from any land) and the whole Southern Indian Ocean, where the polar front is in its northernmost position. The One Ocean One Planet survey offered a new opportunity to get in situ measurements in these remote zones, and validate products of remotely sensed sea surface salinity using data from boat measurements. In the present study, the products being compared are SMOS SSS L3 v2 - 9 Days (BEC), SMOS SSS L3 v5 - 9 Days (CATDS-CECOS-LOCEAN), SMAP SSS L3 v5.0 - 8-Day running (JPL), and SMAP SSS L3 v4 - 8-Day running (RSS). Due to the decreased sensitivity of brightness temperature to salinity in cold seas, retrieving sea surface salinity at high latitudes remains a major challenge. Satellite data can usually only be validated with ARGO data in those latitudes, although the fact that their shallowest observations are between 5 and 10 m depth, may introduce a significant bias. Because the race route includes infrequently sampled places, the real surface data gathered by ...