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As seen from space, Earth has been described as a "blue marble," dominated by sapphire oceans and swirls of white clouds. Continents appear as widely spread outposts, covering less than one-third of the planet's surface. Earth is dominated by water in all its forms: liquid seas, vaporous clouds, and solid ice. The interplay among these forms is depicted as a "water cycle": a water molecule in today's ocean may be found in tomorrow's cloud, then in a glacier during the next Ice Age, and then in the ocean again as climate warms.
The cycling of water and energy through the atmosphere and oceans is crucial to life on Earth. Yet the ties among the water cycle, ocean circulation, and climate are poorly understood. Interestingly, global measurement of Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) over time provides a clear way resolve these relationships. By tracking SSS we can directly monitor variations in the water cycle: land runoff , sea ice freezing and melting, evaporation and precipitation over the oceans. Global SSS data will allow us to create unprecedented computer models that bridge ocean-atmosphere-land-ice systems, with the goal of predicting future climate conditions.
Glossary Words
atmosphere: Gaseous layer surrounding a planet; the whole mass of air surrounding the earth.
climate: The prevailing or normal pattern of weather at a place, or in a region, averaged over a long period of time; in contrast to weather, which is the state of the atmosphere at a particular time.
evaporation: The physical process of converting a liquid to a gas. Commonly considered to occur at a temperature below the boiling point of the liquid.
fresh water: Non-saline water.
model: System of data, inferences, and relationships, presented as a description of a process or entity.
molecule: The simplest structural unit displaying the characteristic physical and chemical properties of a compound.
precipitation: Water released from the atmosphere in the form of rain, snow, hail, or sleet from the atmosphere onto Earth's surface.
runoff: The downward movement of surface water under gravity in channels ranging from small rills to large rivers.
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