盐分较高的北大西洋地区（中上方）呈红色。亚马逊地区呈深蓝色，向大西洋地区延伸。

华盛顿——为了更好地了解世界各大洋的含盐量，有关国家合作进行国际性科学研究，通过一颗环绕地球飞行的卫星仪器获得了第一年收集的数据。

一项被美国国家航空航天局（NASA）描述为“从太空研究我们的咸水海域”的水瓶座号（Aquarius）使命正在与阿根廷国家空间活动委员会（Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales）合作进行，巴西、加拿大、法国和意大利的科研机构也参与了这项使命。

阿根廷国家空间活动委员会提供了航天器、摄像机等设备。美国国家航空航天局建造了第一颗专门为研究大洋表层海水盐含量而设计的“水瓶座号”卫星仪器。

盐度和温度影响着海水的密度和浮力。这些因素影响到海洋水域如何分层以及冷水团或暖水团的形成。盐度还影响着海洋环流以及将热量从热带送往两极的水流的流动。所有这些因素都有助于人们更深入地了解对全球气候产生影响的海洋与大气之间的淡水循环。

设在马里兰州格林贝尔特市（Greenbelt，Maryland）的美国国家航空航天局戈达德宇航中心（Goddard Space Flight Center）水瓶座号项目经理吉恩·卡尔·费尔德曼（Gene Carl Feldman）介绍说：“水瓶座号的使命在头一年的大部分时间是了解仪器和运算的功能。现在，我们已经克服了主要的障碍，能够真正开始把重点放在理解数据上：海洋如何运行，如何影响天气和气候、以及在获得了这些可观的盐度测量结果之后我们能够得出什么新的见解等。”

水瓶座号旨在尽可能多地收集有关海水盐度的数据。在此之前，测量只是季节性地在运输航道中进行。从太空进行的测量提供了一个大得多的海洋视图。

水瓶座号通过一台名为辐射计的仪器观测海面的自然热辐射。表层水发射出与微波炉使用的波段范围接近的信号，而这些信号的强度会随着水的温度而变化。

费尔德曼说：“这台仪器一直完美无暇地运行着，而我们在阿根廷工作的同事也在出色地操作航天器，从而使我们的工作进度良好而稳定。”

在转化成视觉资料之后，盐度最高的地区标为红色，蓝色表示盐度最低。北大西洋海域标出醒目的红色，是在开放海域最咸的地区。美国国家航空航天局把它描述成就好像陆地上的一片沙漠，几乎没有降水，却有大量蒸发。

这些数据还提供了生动的图像，展现出陆地条件、水域流量和海洋温度之间的关系。例如，水瓶座号提供的数据表明，与干燥的中东地区毗邻的阿拉伯海有较高的盐度。孟加拉湾附近地区因受季风季节和恒河等南亚地区较大河流的淡水滋润，盐度就小得多。

通过优兔（YouTube）视频可以看到有关水瓶座号2011年12月至2012年12月观测情况的两段视频：《水瓶座号洋面盐度观测环球之旅的解说》以及《全球洋面盐度变化的可视化展示》。

The salty North Atlantic is depicted in a red patch above center. The Amazon gushes deep blue into the Atlantic.

Washington — An international scientific collaboration to better understand the salinity of the world's oceans is yielding the first year of data gathered by a satellite instrument orbiting the planet.

The Aquarius mission "studying our salty seas from space," as NASA describes it, is being conducted in partnership with Argentina's Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE), with participation from scientific agencies in Brazil, Canada, France and Italy.

CONAE provided the spacecraft, cameras and other equipment. NASA built Aquarius, the first satellite instrument designed specifically to study the salt content of ocean surface water.

Salinity and temperature affect seawater's density and buoyancy. These factors influence how ocean waters are layered and the formation of cold or warm water masses. Salinity also influences ocean circulation and the flow of currents that move heat from the tropics to the poles. All of these factors will provide greater insight into the circulation of fresh water between the oceans and the atmosphere, which in turn is influential on global climate.

"The first year of the Aquarius mission has mostly been about understanding how the instruments and algorithms are performing," said Gene Carl Feldman, Aquarius project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Now that we have overcome the major hurdles, we can really begin to focus on understanding what the data are telling us about how the ocean works, how it affects weather and climate, and what new insights we can gain by having these remarkable salinity measurements."

Aquarius is supposed to collect the most data on ocean salinity that has ever been possible. Previously, measurements were taken only seasonally in shipping lanes. The measurements from space provide a far larger view of the oceans.

Aquarius observes the natural thermal emissions of the sea surface with an instrument called a radiometer. The surface waters emit signals near the range used in microwave ovens, and the strength of those signals will vary with the temperature of the water.

"The instrument has been performing flawlessly and our colleagues in Argentina are doing a fantastic job running the spacecraft, providing us a nice, stable ride," Feldman said.

When translated into a visual, the highest salinity is marked by the red tones and the blues mark the lowest salinity. The striking red patch over North Atlantic waters is the saltiest anywhere in open ocean. NASA describes it as like a desert on land, with little rainfall plus a lot of evaporation.

The satellite data also provide striking images demonstrating how land conditions, water flows and ocean temperatures are related. For example, the Aquarius data show high salinity in the Arabian Sea, with its proximity to the dry Middle East. The neighboring Bay of Bengal, fed by the monsoon seasons and the freshwater flow of the Ganges and other major South Asian rivers, is much less salty.

A narrated global tour of Aquarius ocean surface salinity measurements and a visualization showing changes in global ocean surface salinity as measured by Aquarius from December 2011 through December 2012 can be seen on YouTube.