Seasonal and Interannual Variability of Sea Surface Salinity Near Major River Mouths of the World Ocean Inferred from Gridded Satellite and In-Situ Salinity Products

Problem: Large rivers, key components of the land-ocean branch of the global water and biogeochemical cycles can have important impacts on coastal oceans. Sea surface salinity (SSS) is a critical observable for monitoring river plumes and studying their impacts. Satellite and in-situ SSS gridded products have been used to characterize the variability of some river plumes. However, their consistency have not been examined systematically for near major river mouths of the world ocean.