Spatial Scales of Sea Surface Salinity Subfootprint Variability in the SPURS Regions

Subfootprint variability (SFV), or representativeness error, is variability within the footprint of a satellite that can impact validation by comparison of in situ and remote sensing data. This study seeks to determine the size of the sea surface salinity (SSS) SFV as a function of footprint size in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Remote Sensing
Main Authors: Frederick M. Bingham, Zhijin Li
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020
Subjects:
surface salinity
remote sensing
subfootprint variability
representativeness error
spatial scale
Science
Q
Pacific
North Atlantic
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12233996
https://doaj.org/article/bccd8fac8b114ecbbf0c687dec504ea0
Description
Summary:Subfootprint variability (SFV), or representativeness error, is variability within the footprint of a satellite that can impact validation by comparison of in situ and remote sensing data. This study seeks to determine the size of the sea surface salinity (SSS) SFV as a function of footprint size in two regions that were heavily sampled with in situ data. The Salinity Processes in the Upper-ocean Regional Studies-1 (SPURS-1) experiment was conducted in the subtropical North Atlantic in the period 2012–2013, whereas the SPURS-2 study was conducted in the tropical eastern North Pacific in the period 2016–2017. SSS SFV was also computed using a high-resolution regional model based on the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS). We computed SFV at footprint sizes ranging from 20 to 100 km for both regions. SFV is strongly seasonal, but for different reasons in the two regions. In the SPURS-1 region, the meso- and submesoscale variability seemed to control the size of the SFV. In the SPURS-2 region, the SFV is much larger than SPURS-1 and controlled by patchy rainfall.

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