Salinity measurements from the first leg of the Barcelona World Race.

Data on sea-surface temperature and salinity are being collected by the Fòrum Marítim Català throughout the race. The data acquired along the yacht's route have been interpolated across a band of around 280 km to reconstruct the salinity field either side of the measurement point. This principle is used in many mapping techniques. In the southernmost part of the plot, the interpolation shows where the yacht's trajectory passed, back and forth, across a salinity front.

The data will be used to help validate ocean salinity measurements made by ESA's SMOS mission.