Application of Phenomena‐Resolving Assessment Methods to Satellite Sea Surface Salinity Products
Senliang Bao, Huizan Wang, Ren Zhang, Hengqian Yan, Jian Chen, Chengzu Bai
Abstract
Abstract It is necessary to evaluate satellite sea surface salinity (SSS) L3 products prior to using them to analyze SSS variability. Instead of performing comparison analysis on the accuracy of products (e.g., Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD)), two new evaluation methods, information entropy and local variance, are introduced to assess the performance of satellite SSS products in resolving SSS fronts in the tropical Pacific from a new perspective. The satellite SSS except for SMOS BEC has captured the zonal displacement of SSS fronts under the strong El Niño in 2015. It is effective to use entropy and local variance for the assessment of the capability of satellite SSS products, which can provide new sights for analyzing the variability and distributions of SSS. The spatial distribution of local variance identified the abnormal SSS of the satellite products on or near the islands and the result of SSS entropy is beneficial to the analysis of the mechanisms of the SSS variability. In general, the SMOS CATDS and SMAP_70 km product is recommended for scientific applications in the tropical Pacific.