Background
The SNWG-2020 assessment found that the Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG) agencies would benefit if an additional data flag was added to sea surface salinity (SSS) products from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission that would identify mix ocean/sea ice conditions close to the sea ice edge, rather than the then-current approach of masking and removing the SSS value whenever sea ice is detected. NASA supports the production of SSS products form the SMAP satellite mission which are produced by remote sensing systems (RSS) as part of the NASA Ocean Salinity science team effort. The product, referred to as RSS SMAP-SSS, is distributed via the Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC).