SPURS Education and Outreach: Why was the SPURS Study Site Chosen?

Why was the SPURS Study Site Chosen?

Click on the image for a closer view!

Even though water is evaporating from all over the ocean, this is a place where it is particularly strong. It's sort of the "headwaters" of the whole water cycle in the atmosphere. It's the place where the saltiest open ocean salinities are found, indeed they are much higher than previously anticipated.

Focusing on such a place will lead to understanding how the processes happening here apply more generally to these same processes happening around the global ocean.

- Raymond Schmitt, SPURS Chief Scientist

Featured Video: The North Atlantic's Ocean Desert

Dr. Eric Lindstrom explains why the salinity maximum in the North Atlantic is referred to as an "ocean desert" [view transcript]

	Optimizing Research Methods Dr. Eric Lindstrom [vimeo, 01:21]
	Water Cycle Signals Dr. Lisan Yu [vimeo, 01:28]
	SPURS Come In Pairs: The Next Phase Dr. Eric Lindstrom [vimeo, 01:33]

view all videos in this album [vimeo]

SPURS Blog

Ocean Salinity Viewed from Sea and Space [NASA Earth Observatory]

NASA Program Scientist Eric Lindstrom describes why scientists want to spend six weeks at sea measuring ocean saltiness

Lessons/Tools

Aquarius Interactive Tools [NASA Aquarius]

Spatial patterns of long-term mean data, annual cycle of monthly mean data, and change over time of yearly mean data

Salinity Data and Tools [NASA Aquarius]

Find the data set that most closely corresponds to sea surface salinity patterns

Resources

Geographic Variation in Salinity [NASA Aquarius]

Dr. Susan Lozier, Duke University, describes an ocean desert