By Jim Gerard, INSPIRE Education Specialist, KSC, FL
Who doesn’t enjoy a day at the beach? I remember the first time I took my kids my oldest (age 8 at the time) said, “It was fun, but too salty!” The study of salinity (the measure of dissolved salts in water) will take a giant step next year with the launch of Aquarius. This new ocean observatory will greatly improve our understanding of sea surface salinity.
Last night’s Live Chat featured Dr. Yi Chao, a project scientist from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. In a model of the new meme of social networking, Dr. Chao led his presentation from a downtown LA café, while waiting for his son to finish his cello lesson. This location proved a bit of a challenge, as we had a few disconnects with Dr. Chao. But, we persevered and had a great conversation with 37 OLC members.
If you missed this informative chat, you can find the text and slides in the Chat Archive link on the OLC home page. Dr. Chao wanted me to remind everyone his data website is http://sst.jpl.nasa.gov/SST/ and he can be found under the ‘People’ tab if you have questions.
There were a few questions when Dr. Chao disconnected close to the end of the session, but he has answered them and they appear below. He said he really enjoyed all the questions.
Next week, I will finish our school year season of Live chat with “NASA @ the Movies”. It should be a lot of fun so please plan on joining us. Live Chat will then take a break through the month of June, and then return in July with presentations from our SSE interns.
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Bonus Questions:
Erin E. asks:
Are there any specific theories or predictions that the science community would like to prove about salinity, or is this more of a fact-finding mission?
Yi Chao answers:
There are two types of objectives for the Aquarius mission. The first objective is about discovery. As you said, this will be a fact-finding mission. In those places where ocean salinity was never measured, Aquarius will find something new and interesting. The second objective is about salinity science, including the global water cycle, the ocean's circulation and its role in climate.
Jonathan R. asks:
What kind of equipment is placed in the oceans to take readings which can work together with the data to be collected by the satellite? What about animals and tracking mechanisms which travel long distances in the ocean waters?
Yi Chao answers:
There are a number of ways of measuring the salinity in the water, including tagging marine animals as you mentioned. The TOPP project (http://www.topp.org/) is just one such examples of tagging animals in the ocean. One can also measure salinity from ships, moored and drifting buoys, and profiling floats. There are 3000+ floats that measure sea surface salinity every 10 days, see the project web site to learn more, http://www.argo.ucsd.edu/. We need these in situ measurement to calibrate the satellite observations, and verify the proposed 0.2 salinity unit accuracy.
Dalton H. asks: Do you think the recent oil spill in the atlantic will affect this great belt current you were speaking of?
Yi Chao answers:
No, the impact of this oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on the overall circulation is very small. However, the ocean circulation in the Gulf of Mexico, known as the Loop Current, which is part of the Gulf Stream and the great conveyor belt will have a major impact on the spreading patterns of the oil. To have a good understand of the 3D ocean circulation is essential in order to predict where the oil will go and how long does it take to reach to the surface.
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