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A conceptual model of ocean freshwater flux derived from sea surface salinity
Author(s) -
Nieves V.,
Wang J.,
Willis J. K.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2014gl061365
Subject(s) - salinity , flux (metallurgy) , environmental science , oceanography , geology , seawater , climatology , metallurgy , materials science
A conceptual model is proposed to express freshwater flux (evaporation minus precipitation) as a function of sea surface salinity (and vice versa). The model is formulated using an idealized one‐dimensional diffusion equation for the ocean surface layer. It is shown to provide good agreement with existing freshwater flux estimates and salinity observations. It also has the potential to enhance our capability of monitoring and modeling global freshwater fluxes and salinity as a data retrieval algorithm for remote sensing. The model may improve physical parameterization in coupled ocean‐atmosphere models to study the global water cycle.