Seasonal and Interannual Variability of Sea Surface Salinity Near Major River Mouths of the World Ocean Inferred from Gridded Satellite and In-Situ Salinity Products

Fournier, Séverine; Lee, Tong

doi:10.3390/rs13040728

Cited by 27 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(32 reference statements)

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“…This further underscores the values of satellite data in monitoring winter and spring conditions in the future. In addition, a previous study has demonstrated that remote sensing salinity can reflect the SSS variability near major rivers in lower and middle latitudes [51]. Our assessment of satellite products near the Yukon River further confirms its robustness and benefits in understanding the intense salinity changes near such a high-latitude river.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Sea Surface Salinity Variability in the Bering Sea in 2015–2020

et al. 2022

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Salinity in the Bering Sea is vital for the physical environment that is tied to the productive ecosystem and the properties of Pacific waters transported to the Arctic Ocean. Its salinity variability reflects many fundamental processes, including sea ice formation/melting and river runoff, but its spatial and temporal characteristics require better documentation. This study utilizes remote sensing products and in situ observations collected by saildrone missions to investigate Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) variability. All Satellite products resolve the large-scale pattern set up by the relatively salty deep basin and the fresh coastal region, but they can be inaccurate near the ice edge and near land. The SSS annual cycle exhibits seasonal maxima in winter to spring, and minima in summer to fall. The amplitude and timing of the seasonal cycle are variable, especially on the eastern Bering Sea shelf. SSS variability recorded by both saildrone, and satellite instruments provide unprecedented insights into short-term oceanic processes including sea ice melting, wind-driven currents during weather events, and river plumes etc. In particular, the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite demonstrates encouraging skills in capturing the freshening signals induced by spring sea ice melting. The Yukon River plume is another source of intense SSS variability. Surface wind forcing plays an essential role in controlling the horizontal movement of plume water and thereby shaping the SSS seasonal cycle in local regions.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Sea Surface Salinity Variability in the Bering Sea in 2015–2020

et al. 2022

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“…This localized freshening is dictated by the hydrological forcing through local rainfall and river discharges (Gierach et al, 2013;Grodsky et al, 2014;Chao et al, 2015;da Silva & Castelao, 2018;Fournier, Vandemark, et al, 2017;Fournier, Vialard, et al, 2017). In general, plume features are underestimated in in situ products (Fournier & Lee, 2021).…”

Section: The 3-year Mean Sss Fieldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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“…This can be attributed to river discharges as illustrated here in the Amazon River plume and the Bay of Bengal regions (Figures 6 and 8) and previously documented in regional studies [15,46,47,69,[94][95][96]. More recently, SMOS and SMAP have been shown to reproduce well seasonal and interannual SSS variation in the mouths of major rivers [97]. Strong coastal precipitations in the tropics could also induce such freshening [13,45] but their potential contribution could not be quantified here.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 69%

Global Analysis of Coastal Gradients of Sea Surface Salinity

Dossa

Alory

Silva³

et al. 2021

Remote Sensing

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Sea surface salinity (SSS) is a key variable for ocean–atmosphere interactions and the water cycle. Due to its climatic importance, increasing efforts have been made for its global in situ observation, and dedicated satellite missions have been launched more recently to allow homogeneous coverage at higher resolution. Cross-shore SSS gradients can bear the signature of different coastal processes such as river plumes, upwelling or boundary currents, as we illustrate in a few regions. However, satellites performances are questionable in coastal regions. Here, we assess the skill of four gridded products derived from the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) and Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellites and the GLORYS global model reanalysis at capturing cross-shore SSS gradients in coastal bands up to 300 km wide. These products are compared with thermosalinography (TSG) measurements, which provide continuous data from the open ocean to the coast along ship tracks. The comparison shows various skills from one product to the other, decreasing as the coast gets closer. The bias in reproducing coastal SSS gradients is unrelated to how the SSS biases evolve with the distance to the coast. Despite limited skill, satellite products generally agree better with collocated TSG data than a global reanalysis and show a large range of coastal SSS gradients with different signs. Moreover, satellites reveal a global dominance of coastal freshening, primarily related to river runoff over shelves. This work shows a great potential of SSS remote sensing to monitor coastal processes, which would, however, require a jump in the resolution of future SSS satellite missions to be fully exploited.

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Seasonal and Interannual Variability of Sea Surface Salinity Near Major River Mouths of the World Ocean Inferred from Gridded Satellite and In-Situ Salinity Products

Cited by 27 publications

References 29 publications

Sea Surface Salinity Variability in the Bering Sea in 2015–2020

Sea Surface Salinity Variability in the Bering Sea in 2015–2020

Revisiting the Global Patterns of Seasonal Cycle in Sea Surface Salinity

Global Analysis of Coastal Gradients of Sea Surface Salinity

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