edu.ucar.opensky::articles:22768 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-25T15:30:40.336775 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7bv7h32 Impact of Aquarius and SMAP satellite sea surface salinity observations on coupled El Niño/Southern Oscillation forecasts 2019-07-04T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7bv7h32 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015130 Hackert, E. C. author Kovach, R. M. author Busalacchi, Antonio J. author Ballabrera-Poy, J. author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher This study demonstrates the positive impact of including gridded Aquarius and Soil Moisture, Active/Passive (SMAP) sea surface salinity (SSS) into initialization of intermediate complexity coupled model forecasts for the tropical Indo-Pacific. An experiment that assimilates conventional ocean observations serves as the control. In a separate experiment, Aquarius and SMAP satellite SSS are additionally assimilated into the coupled model initialization. Analysis of the initialization differences with the control indicates that SSS assimilation causes a freshening and shallowing of the mixed layer depth near the equator and enhanced Kelvin wave amplitude. For each month from September 2011 to September 2017, 12-month-coupled ENSO forecasts are initialized from both the control and satellite SSS assimilation experiments. The experiment assimilating Aquarius and SMAP SSS significantly outperforms the control relative to observed NINO3.4 sea surface temperature anomalies. This work highlights the potential importance of inclusion of satellite SSS for improving the initialization of operational ENSO coupled forecasts. UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication Published 2019. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. None eng geoscientificInformation