Aircraft and In Situ Salinity and Ocean Color Measurements and Comparisons in the Gulf of Mexico
Abstract
We report here on aircraft measurements made in May, 2007, with the NRL STARRS (Salinity, Temperature and Roughness Remote Scanner), and optical multi-wavelength radiance and irradiance sensors (Satlantic OCR-507 at SEA- WIFS wavelength bands). These measurements were made in conjunction with in situ measurements of sea surface salinity (SSS), ocean color, and fluorescence in the Atchafalaya River outflow from the R/V Pelican. In this work we demonstrate the ability of the aircraft optical and L-Band measurements to a) detect the location of salinity and color fronts as observed in the in situ measurements from the ship and b) provide context for the in situ measurements by providing synoptic measurements over a wider area than the ship was able to cover. A multilinear regression for salinity, based on three of the optical channels, provides an excellent qualitatative proxy for large scale salinity in the Atchafalaya plume region. We believe this is the first simultaneous use of L-Band and optical instruments to measure salinity from an aircraft.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA494627
Entities
People
- Chris Osburn
- Derek Burrage
- Joel Wesson
- Stephan Howden
- Virgilio Maisonet
- Xiagong Chen
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory