Impacts of rainfall on aquarius sea surface salinity measurements

The effect of the rain in the SSS measurement is not a well understood phenomenon. Both instantaneous rain rate (RR) and previous rain accumulation (RA) can cause errors in the AQ SSS measurement. In this paper, we discuss the RR and RA from the CFRSL Rain Accumulation Product (AQ RA) that describes the instantaneous, occurring simultaneously with the AQ L-band IFOV, and accumulated rainfall, based on the 3B42 product. Also, we present examples of the AQ RA data that are compared to the AQ SSS retrievals. Comparison of these results demonstrate the correlation between SSS (1 cm) and the HYCOM oceanographic model, which represents the stead-state 5 m depth salinity. Also plans are presented to use the data to better understand the transient salinity gradient that occurs after a significant rainfall.