Climatology and seasonality of upper ocean salinity: a three-dimensional view from argo floats

Chen, Ge; Peng, Lin; Ma, Chunyong

doi:10.1007/s00382-017-3742-6

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…The climatology and variability of the upper ocean temperature and salinity have been respectively investigated in our recent studies (Chen and Wang 2016;Chen et al 2017). As a quantitative measure of the temperature-salinity coherency, the point-wise correlation field is computed here using the 13-year monthly time series, and the globally averaged T/S correlation coefficient as a function of depth is shown in Fig.…”

Section: The Global T-s Correlationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A “mirror layer” of temperature and salinity in the ocean

Chen

Geng

2018

Clim Dyn

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Using the newly available 13-year Argo float data for the period 2004-2016, a three-dimensional temperature-salinity (T-S) correlation field is constructed for the global upper ocean. It is revealed that the layer-averaged correlation between T and S time series has a significant peak (~ 0.7) at a depth of approximately 300 m, suggesting that the density-compensated thermohaline covariation may lead to a maximum T-S coupling in the vicinity of the pycnocline. This argument is supported by subsequent findings that the spatial distributions of temperature and salinity have excellent consistencies in terms of both climatology and seasonality around this depth, which we call a "T-S mirror layer". Since mass, heat and salt are mainly transported by dynamic events and processes, dominant currents and prevailing eddies in the pycnocline zone are found to determine the fundamental patterns of the global T/S climatologies which are characterized by a unified pattern of six well-defined warm/salty pools with collocated centroids and a clear west preference. Our results also suggest that the climatological ocean circulations transport heat/salt as a conveyor belt, meanwhile heat and salt parcels are discretely transported by numerous migrating mesoscale eddies, the combined effects of which lead to the formation of six well-defined "warm/ salty pools" in the western subtropical oceans with a core depth of ~ 300 m at the "mirror layer".

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Section: The Global T-s Correlationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A “mirror layer” of temperature and salinity in the ocean

Chen

Geng

2018

Clim Dyn

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“…Both thermocline and halocline deteriorate during the LIW formation in winter. Surface salinity maxima are also known to occur in subtropical regions where they are related to extensive heating and evaporation (Bingham et al, 2014;Chen et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2019) during stable (low wind) weather conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observation, Preconditioning and Recurrence of Exceptionally High Salinities in the Adriatic Sea

et al. 2021

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The paper aims to describe the preconditioning and observations of exceptionally high salinity values that were observed in summer and autumn of 2017 in the Adriatic. The observations encompassed CTD measurements carried out along the well-surveyed climatological transect in the Middle Adriatic (the Palagruža Sill, 1961–2020), Argo profiling floats and several glider missions, accompanied with satellite altimetry and operational ocean numerical model (Mediterranean Forecasting System) products. Typically, subsurface salinity maximum, with values lower than 39.0, is observed in the Southern Adriatic (usually between 200 and 400 m), related to ingressions of saltier and warmer waters originating in the eastern Mediterranean (Levantine Intermediate Water—LIW). However, seasonally strong inflow of warm and high salinity waters (S > 38.8) has been observed much closer to the surface since spring 2015. The main LIW core deepened at the same time (to 400–700 m). Such double-maxima vertical pattern was eventually disturbed by winter convection at the beginning of 2017, increasing salinities throughout the water column. A new episode of very strong inflow of high salinity waters from the Northern Ionian was observed in late winter and spring of 2017, this time restricted almost to the surface. As most of 2017 was characterized by extremely dry conditions, low riverine inputs and warmer than usual summer over the Adriatic and Northern Ionian, salinity values above the sharp and shallow (15–40 m) thermocline significantly increased. The maximum recorded salinity was 39.26, as measured by the Argo float in the Southern Adriatic. Surface salinity maximum events, but with much lower intensity, have been documented in the past. Both past events and the 2017 event were characterized by (i) concurrence with overall high salinity conditions and cyclonic or transitional phase of the Adriatic-Ionian Bimodal Oscillating System, (ii) very low river discharges preconditioning the events for a year or more, (iii) higher-than-average heat fluxes during most of the summer and early autumn periods, forming a stable warm layer above the thermocline, and (iv) higher-than-average E-P (evaporation minus precipitation) acting on this warm surface layer. Importantly, the 2017 event was also preceded by strong near-surface inflow of very saline waters from the Northern Ionian in early 2017.

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“…They also applied harmonic analysis to individual data instead of monthly gridded values. Chen et al (2018) took the advantage of the 11-years (2004-2014) Argo monthly mean fields (Roemmich & Gilson, 2009) and conducted harmonic decomposition to obtain the three-dimensional structure of the global salinity seasonal climatology. The annual and semiannual periodicities can be found from the surface all the way down to the Argo sampling depth of ∼2000 m. There are also a few applications to recent satellite SSS products in various selected regions (e.g., Köhler et al, 2015;Melnichenko et al, 2019;Reagan et al, 2014;Sena Martins et al, 2015;Yu, 2020).…”

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Revisiting the Global Patterns of Seasonal Cycle in Sea Surface Salinity

Bingham

Lee

et al. 2021

JGR Oceans

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The advent of L-band passive microwave remote sensing in the last decade (2010 to present) has allowed for the first time the retrieval of global high-resolution sea surface salinity (SSS) from space (Reul et al., 2014;Vinogradova et al., 2019). These new SSS datasets have opened the modern era of salinity science, leading to new insights into the role of salinity in ocean circulation, water mass formation, the water cycle, and climate variability and change (Reul et al., 2020). Like many typical time series, the most characteristic signal of satellite SSS is the seasonal cycle, a pattern that is repetitive from year to year and has variability generally greater than intraseasonal, interannual, and longer-timescale variability (Bingham & Lee, 2017;Dinnat et al., 2019). To facilitate the detection of climate-induced fluctuations that have smaller magnitudes, the

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Climatology and seasonality of upper ocean salinity: a three-dimensional view from argo floats

Cited by 15 publications

References 54 publications

A “mirror layer” of temperature and salinity in the ocean

A “mirror layer” of temperature and salinity in the ocean

Observation, Preconditioning and Recurrence of Exceptionally High Salinities in the Adriatic Sea

Revisiting the Global Patterns of Seasonal Cycle in Sea Surface Salinity

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