1. John T. Gunn, AVDS Manager Earth & Space Research 1910 Fairview Ave. E., Suite 210 Seattle, WA 98102 Ph: 206-726-0501; Email: gunn@esr.org 1 st Joint GOSUD/SAMOS Workshop Boulder, Colorado 2-4 May, 2006 Aquarius Sea Surface Salinity satellite mission validation using near real-time, in-situ oceanographic data

2. 2 of 15 4 May 2006 Salinity Satellite Mission GOSUD/SAMOS:John Gunn Aquarius Salinity Microwave Instrument Launch Vehicle Service Platform and SAC-D Science Instruments Mission Operations & Ground System International Partnership Mission

3. 3 of 15 4 May 2006 Salinity Satellite Mission GOSUD/SAMOS:John Gunn Single Day Orbit Swath Pattern The orbit precesses to yield complete coverage in 7 days

4. 4 of 15 4 May 2006 Salinity Satellite Mission GOSUD/SAMOS:John Gunn 390 km wide swath. 76 x 94 km96 x 156 km 84 x 120 km 3 beams Salinity Data Surface Validation Mission Design and Sampling Strategy Beams point toward the night side to avoid sun glint Beams point toward the night side to avoid sun glint Launch March 2009 In Orbit Check out Aquarius Ground System Aquarius Ground System Global Coverage in 7 Days 4 Repeat Cycles per Month Global Coverage in 7 Days 4 Repeat Cycles per Month Sun-synchronous exact repeat orbit 6pm ascending node Altitude 657 km

5. 5 of 15 4 May 2006 Salinity Satellite Mission GOSUD/SAMOS:John Gunn Deliver surface calibration data to Aquarius and SMOS Data Processing Centers AVDS Liaison with observers Daily data acquisition Quality control/editing Uniform data format Liaison with observers Daily data acquisition Quality control/editing Uniform data format The Aquarius Validation Data Segment (AVDS) will collect and process surface measurements for the Aquarius data processing

6. 6 of 15 4 May 2006 Salinity Satellite Mission GOSUD/SAMOS:John Gunn AVDS In-situ Data Sources PlatformQuantityTypeDistributionMin DepthLatency Argo Buoys~300/dayProfile floatOcean-wide5m1 day TAO/Triton 1 36 of 68 With salinity MooringTropical Pac1m1 day PIRATA15MooringTropical Atl1m1 day GDP buoys 2 Sfc Salinity 50 to 300 Surface drifterOcean-wide0.5 m2 mos Shipboard Thermo- salinograph variesHull-mountedOcean-wide5m2 days GTSPPvariesCTD profileOcean-wide1mTBD Validation Data Sampling Parameters 1 Funding for additional sensors and 50 additional buoys planned for FY07 2 Funding for 50 buoys with near surface S sensors in FY07 ramping up to 300 in FY09

7. 7 of 15 4 May 2006 Salinity Satellite Mission GOSUD/SAMOS:John Gunn In-situ data AVDS ESR AVDS ESR ADPS GSFC ADPS GSFC USERS GTSPP Validation data Via ftp daily

8. 8 of 15 4 May 2006 Salinity Satellite Mission GOSUD/SAMOS:John Gunn AVDS provides: -Position (latitude, longitude) -Time -Acceptable deltas for position and time -Format is ASCII -Other identifying information (TBD) ADPS returns: All Aquarius data collected within position and time windows -Format is ASCII -Include brightness Temp (T B ), derived salinity, position, time of Level 2 data (along track) -Other identifying information (TBD) AVDS-ADPS Interaction

9. 9 of 15 4 May 2006 Salinity Satellite Mission GOSUD/SAMOS:John Gunn User Community Products AVDS will provide the following to the surface salinity user community: Tabular collection of in-situ and Aquarius SSS data for matched pairs Description of statistical selection process by in-situ data type Access to match-up criteria, in-situ data and edited, tabular coincident measurements via data servers, as shown below. AVDS In-situ data base In-situ data base Edited, tabulated Coincident meas. Edited, tabulated Coincident meas. Position, time Window for matchup Position, time Window for matchup

10. 10 of 15 4 May 2006 Salinity Satellite Mission GOSUD/SAMOS:John Gunn Exchange formats between AVDS and ADPS will use an established system developed for the SeaWifs system The existing format structure will require only slight modifications to adapt to the Aquarius validation requirements

11. 11 of 15 4 May 2006 Salinity Satellite Mission GOSUD/SAMOS:John Gunn Surface Current Data validation ESR Satellite derived surface currents with validation using GDP buoys www.oscar.noaa.gov www.esr.org

12. 12 of 15 4 May 2006 Salinity Satellite Mission GOSUD/SAMOS:John Gunn Desired Validation Database Attributes Searchable in time and space Reasonable level of Quality Control Format with comfortable ease-of-use Source Traceability and documentation (metadata) Internet access to data in near real-time (< 1 week delay) Two examples follow; GOSUD thermosalinograph underway data and ARGO profiling buoys data

13. 13 of 15 4 May 2006 Salinity Satellite Mission GOSUD/SAMOS:John Gunn GOSUD Data Distribution 2006 Data is stored by year and ship 2006 data as of end of April 2006 Distribution somewhat constant in time (~5-6K point per week) Some outliers in position Cruise tracks repeated (limited mid-Pacific coverage)

14. 14 of 15 4 May 2006 Salinity Satellite Mission GOSUD/SAMOS:John Gunn ARGO Data Distribution Data is stored in daily files Two consecutive days in April Number of data points drops but distribution in time is similar Duplicate points exist for April 24 th data (can affect statistics)

15. 15 of 15 4 May 2006 Salinity Satellite Mission GOSUD/SAMOS:John Gunn Conclusions Access and ease of use for global data bases are significantly improved over the last few years Aquarius will require access to validation in near real-time mode. As such, initial QC is very important Idiosyncrasies of various validation data sets will require careful evaluation in their application to satellite fields Delayed mode data (high QC level) will be important for re-analysis efforts but are probably delayed too long for use in validating initial data distribution