Comparison analysis between Aquarius sea surface salinity and World Ocean Database in situ analyzed sea surface salinity

Aquarius exhibits similar biases as shown in previous comparison SSS studies, with negative biases in the tropics transitioning to positive biases in the higher latitudes when compared to WOD SSS.

These biases are generally much weaker in CAP than the standard version, indicating that the biases are strongly related to the differences in algorithms used to retrieve satellite SSS. Non-Argo data utilized in the study are shown to be of great use to validate Aquarius in regions with little to no Argo coverage and helps provide SSS measurements in regions where there are known errors in Aquarius retrievals. The annual cycle of WOD and Aquarius is found to be very similar, with Aquarius being generally more coherent and robust.