Water Floats Confirm SMOS Ocean Salinity Measurements

Data sent back to Earth by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite have been confirmed yet again, this time by the Argo network of ocean drifters.

Though SMOS is the most advanced salinity-measuring spacecraft ever developed, experts on the ground are constantly cross-referencing the data it returns to in-situ measurements, to ensure that all possible errors are rectified in time.

The success of the latest validation study goes a long way towards reassuring scientists that the computer models based on information from this satellite are entirely accurate. The Argo network is currently made up of more than 3,500 active drifters.

Argo and SMOS complement each other with great efficiency. The former collects point data at high resolution every 10 days, while the later gathers all-ocean views at lower resolution, every 5 days.