The Aquarius mission (planned launch date: March 2009) will provide the first-ever global maps of salt concentration in the ocean surface needed to understand heat transport and storage in the oceans. Aquarius is a focused satellite mission to measure global Sea Surface Salinity (SSS). Scientific progress is limited because conventional in situ SSS sampling is too sparse to give the global view of salinity variability that only a satellite can provide. Aquarius will resolve missing physical processes that link the water cycle, the climate, and the ocean. Aquarius is planning to launch in 2009. Aquarius/SAC-D is a space mission developed by NASA and the Space Agency of Argentina (Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales, CONAE.)