Differences Among Subtropical Surface Salinity Patterns

Gordon, Arnold L.; Giulivi, Claudia F.; Busecke, Julius; Bingham, Frederick M.

doi:10.5670/oceanog.2015.02

Cited by 42 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The tropical Pacific Ocean is characterized by a large band of low sea surface salinity (SSS) centered around 10°N, with freshpools on each side of the Pacific Ocean: The West‐Pacific fresh‐pool (WPFP) (Delcroix & Picaut, ) and East‐Pacific fresh‐pool (EPFP) (Alory et al, ) respectively (Figure a). Higher salinities on the poleward sides of the low SSS band belong to the sub‐tropical salinity maximums described by Hasson et al () and Gordon et al (). If the mean SSS field is mainly due to the surface freshwater fluxes, as indicated by its agreement with the 0 and −1.5 m.yr −1 isohyets (Figure a), the meridional shift between the two structures reveals the importance of ocean dynamics (Hasson et al, ; Sena‐Martins & Stammer, 2015; Tchilibou et al, ; Yu, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Northward Pathway Across the Tropical North Pacific Ocean Revealed by Surface Salinity: How do El Niño Anomalies Reach Hawaii?

et al. 2018

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Using the unprecedented 7 year monitoring of sea surface salinity (SSS) from the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite mission, an unexpected large‐scale anomaly at 20°N is studied in the tropical Pacific Ocean following the 2015‐2016 extreme El Niño event. This basin‐wide negative anomaly (below −0.3) is present in October 2015 between 15 and 25°N, reaching the Hawaiian archipelago. It has not been previously observed during El Niño events. It is accompanied by a negative equatorial SSS anomaly at the dateline (below −0.5) which has been previously described as an El Niño‐associated SSS anomaly. A wide range of observations (in situ and space‐borne) and a state‐of‐the‐art ocean model simulation are used together to characterize and understand the mechanisms leading to this singular SSS signal. The extra‐equatorial negative SSS anomaly is found to be a superposition of a persisting SSS anomaly due to the 2014 weak El Niño and of the larger 2015‐2016 El Niño SSS anomaly. Both were advected northward in the tropical current system by the mean Ekman currents and hypothetically by instabilities in the zonal currents patterns. An analysis of analogous structures in the past 20 years shows that this northward displacement of SSS anomalies is not El Niño specific, even if their advection is enhanced during El Niño events. This study shows that when surface freshwater fluxes are weak SSS, unlike sea surface temperature, can be used to trace water mass displacement for up to 20 months.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Northward Pathway Across the Tropical North Pacific Ocean Revealed by Surface Salinity: How do El Niño Anomalies Reach Hawaii?

et al. 2018

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“…Considerable interest in what maintains these various salinity minima and maxima has been spurred by recent field programs and satellite salinity measurements [Lindstrom et al, 2015;SPURS-2 Planning Group, 2015]. Gordon et al [2015] perform a comparative analysis of the five S s maxima in the North and South Atlantic, North and South Pacific, and South Indian Oceans. Figure 4 contrasts the balances in these regions of relative S s maxima and respective maxima in  , which are not exactly coincident (Figures 1 and 3), as well as three other regions outlined in Figure 1 representing areas of minimum S s and  .…”

Section: Interplay Of Advection Diffusion and Forcingmentioning

confidence: 99%

An assessment of basic processes controlling mean surface salinity over the global ocean

Ponte

Vinogradova

2016

Geophysical Research Letters

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A data‐constrained ocean state estimate that permits closed property budget diagnostics is used to examine the balance between surface forcing ( falsescriptF¯), advective ( falsescriptA¯), and diffusive ( falsescriptD¯) fluxes in maintaining the large‐scale time‐mean surface salinity falseSs¯. Time‐mean budgets (1993–2010) are considered for the 10 m thick top layer. In general, falsescriptD¯ tends to counteract falsescriptF¯, but falsescriptA¯ is important almost everywhere, and some regions show a main balance between falsescriptA¯ and falsescriptD¯ (Bay of Bengal, Arctic) or falsescriptA¯ and falsescriptF¯ (tropical Atlantic and Pacific). Advection tends to freshen the surface in the tropics and high latitudes, with opposite tendencies in midlatitudes. For various falseSs¯ tropical extrema, falsescriptA¯ adds to the falsescriptF¯ tendencies in precipitation regions and opposes falsescriptF¯ in evaporation regions. Long‐term falseSs¯ conditions thus reflect more than a simple diffusive adjustment to falsescriptF¯, likely involving close interaction between wind‐ and buoyancy‐driven circulation and mixing processes.

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“…Within this zone, the excess of evaporation over precipitation (E > P), together with surface convergence of the wind-driven Ekman flow, leads to a pool of sea surface salinity maximum (SSS-max) in the subtropical gyres of the world's ocean. Of all SSS-max centers, the North Atlantic SSSmax is the highest, in excess of 37 and also the most studied (Bingham et al, 2014;Bryan & Bachman, 2014;Gordon et al, 2015;Reverdin et al, 2007). During the early spring when the mixed layer warms up and shoals, the subduction of the surface high-salinity water leads to the formation of a distinct salinity maximum at the depths of 50-300 m. This intermediate water mass is referred to as subtropical underwater (STUW) (e.g., O'Connor et al, 2005) or salinity maximum water (e.g., Blanke et al, 2002;Worthington, 1976).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Poleward Shift in Ventilation of the North Atlantic Subtropical Underwater

Jin

Hao

2018

Geophysical Research Letters

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We report the findings that the sea surface salinity maximum (SSS‐max) in the North Atlantic has poleward expanded in recent decades and that the expansion is a main driver of the decadal changes in subtropical underwater (STUW). We present observational evidence that the STUW ventilation zone (marked by the location of the 36.7 isohaline) has been displaced northward by1.2 ± 0.36° latitude for the 34 year (1979–2012) period. As a result of the redistribution of the SSS‐max water, the ventilation zone has shifted northward and expanded westward into the Sargasso Sea. The ventilation rate of STUW has increased, which is attributed to the increased lateral induction of the sloping mixed layer. STUW has become broader, deeper, and saltier, and the changes are most pronounced on the northern and western edges of the high‐saline core.

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Differences Among Subtropical Surface Salinity Patterns

Cited by 42 publications

References 30 publications

Northward Pathway Across the Tropical North Pacific Ocean Revealed by Surface Salinity: How do El Niño Anomalies Reach Hawaii?

Northward Pathway Across the Tropical North Pacific Ocean Revealed by Surface Salinity: How do El Niño Anomalies Reach Hawaii?

An assessment of basic processes controlling mean surface salinity over the global ocean

Poleward Shift in Ventilation of the North Atlantic Subtropical Underwater

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