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Madden‐Julian Oscillation‐Induced Sea Surface Salinity Variability as Detected in Satellite‐Derived Salinity
Author(s) -
Shoup Casey G.,
Subrahmanyam Bulusu,
RomanStork Heather L.
Publication year - 2019
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 - 10.1029/2019gl083694
Subject(s) - madden–julian oscillation , salinity , environmental science , climatology , satellite , precipitation , sea surface temperature , water content , atmospheric sciences , geology , oceanography , meteorology , geography , convection , aerospace engineering , engineering , geotechnical engineering
As a dominant source of tropical variability, the Madden‐Julian oscillation (MJO) influences the ocean in many ways. One approach to observe the atmosphere‐ocean relationship is by examining sea surface salinity (SSS) due to direct freshening by MJO precipitation. The convectively enhanced (suppressed) phase of the MJO is associated with negative (positive) SSS anomalies that propagate eastward along the equatorial Indian and Pacific oceans. In this study, primary MJO events are identified, and their SSS signatures are compared for the first time across multiple satellite salinity products (the European Space Agency's Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Aquarius and Soil Moisture Active Passive) from 2010 to 2017. While all satellite missions are capable of detecting MJO signals and primary events on an unprecedented observational scale, we find that the use of the combined active passive algorithm increases signal robustness, with the strongest signal response in Soil Moisture Active Passive and Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (±0.2 psu) and the lowest in Aquarius (±0.1 psu).