Seasonal salt budget in the northeast Pacific Ocean

Ren, Li; Riser, Stephen C.

doi:10.1029/2009jc005307

Cited by 68 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…As in the subtropical southeastern and northeastern Pacific (Ren and Riser 2009;Kolodziejczyk and Gaillard 2013) and in the equatorial Atlantic (Da-Allada et al 2014b;Berger et al 2014) which showed that vertical mixing plays a major role in the salinity balance, this term (neglected in this study) also appears to be important in this study and particularly in the STIO region.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Mixed-layer salinity budget in the tropical Indian Ocean: seasonal cycle based only on observations

2015

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Mixed-layer salinity budget in the tropical Indian Ocean: seasonal cycle based only on observations

2015

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“…In the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, they show large seasonal amplitudes of up to 0.7 and quite large variability in the phase. Ren and Riser (2009) studied the seasonal balance of mixed-layer salinity in a region of the northeastern subarctic Pacific. They found the mixed-layer salinity is maximum in spring, with an amplitude of about 0.2.…”

Section: F M Bingham Et Al: the Seasonal Cycle Of Surface Layer Samentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics of the seasonal cycle of surface layer salinity in the global ocean

2012

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Abstract. The seasonal variability of surface layer salinity (SLS), evaporation (E), precipitation (P ), E − P , advection and vertical entrainment over the global ocean is examined using in situ salinity data, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction's Climate System Forecast Reanalysis and a number of other ancillary data. Seasonal amplitudes and phases are calculated using harmonic analysis and presented in all areas of the open ocean between 60 • S and 60 • N. Areas with large amplitude SLS seasonal variations include: the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans; western marginal seas of the Pacific; and the Arabian Sea. The median amplitude in areas that have statistically significant seasonal cycles of SLS is 0.19. Between about 60 • S and 60 • N, 37 % of the ocean surface has a statistically significant seasonal cycle of SLS and 75 % has a seasonal cycle of E −P . Phases of SLS have a bimodal distribution, with most areas in the Northern Hemisphere peaking in SLS in March/April and in the Southern Hemisphere in September/October.The seasonal cycle is also estimated for surface freshwater forcing using a mixed-layer depth climatology. With the exception of areas near the western boundaries of the North Atlantic and North Pacific, seasonal variability is dominated by precipitation. Surface freshwater forcing also has a bimodal distribution, with peaks in January and July, 1-2 months before the peaks of SLS. Seasonal amplitudes and phases calculated for horizontal advection show it to be important in the tropical oceans. Vertical entrainment, estimated from mixedlayer heaving, is largest in mid and high latitudes, with a seasonal cycle that peaks in late winter.The amplitudes and phases of SLS and surface fluxes compare well in a qualitative sense, suggesting that much of the variability in SLS is due to E − P . However, the amplitudes of SLS are somewhat different than would be expected and the peak of SLS comes typically about one month earlier than expected. The differences of the amplitudes of the two quantities is largest in such areas as the Amazon River plume, the Arabian Sea, the ITCZ and the eastern equatorial Pacific and Atlantic.

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“…As several realizations of the annual period have been measured, we can now determine the seasonal cycle of salinity and E-P, and explicitly determine the amplitude and phase and their statistical significance. Since the data are available, we take the approach of not averaging over a set of large areas (Foltz and McPhaden, 2008;Ren and Riser, 2009), using EOFs (Delcroix et al, 1996), gridded climatologies (Boyer and Levitus, 2002) or of focusing on specific ship tracks (DH91) but of looking at the seasonal cycle in detail over a large area. This allows us to get a closer picture of areas of interest like the mode water formation regions and the ITCZ.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%