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Sea Surface Salinity as a Proxy for Arctic Ocean Freshwater Changes
Author(s) -
Fournier Séverine,
Lee Tong,
Wang Xiaochun,
Armitage Thomas W. K.,
Wang Ou,
Fukumori Ichiro,
Kwok Ron
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: oceans
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9291
pISSN - 2169-9275
DOI - 10.1029/2020jc016110
Subject(s) - arctic , oceanography , environmental science , sea surface height , arctic dipole anomaly , sss* , ocean gyre , salinity , sea ice , climatology , sea surface temperature , arctic ice pack , geology , fishery , drift ice , mathematical optimization , subtropics , mathematics , biology
The changing Arctic freshwater content and distribution have a significant implications for ocean circulation, climate, and water and biogeochemical cycles. The paucity of in situ salinity measurements in the Arctic Ocean has limited our ability to study Arctic‐Ocean freshwater variability. Although satellite‐derived sea surface height (SSH) and ocean bottom pressure (OBP) have been used together to infer depth‐integrated freshwater content changes, these measurements are limited in sampling and resolution. Motivated by the recent development of sea surface salinity (SSS) remote sensing, we explore the use of SSS as a proxy for Arctic freshwater changes. As a first step, here we conduct a proof‐of‐concept study by analyzing the output of an ocean‐ice state estimation product. We find that SSS variations are coherent with those of SSH‐minus‐OBP across the Arctic basin (with R ~ −0.8) except for those in the center of the Beaufort Gyre and the region affected by the subpolar North Atlantic inflow. On Arctic shelves, the linear regression coefficient between SSS and SSH‐minus‐OBP is −0.3 pss/cm or larger in magnitude. The results suggest that SSS is a good proxy for Arctic freshwater changes, and satellite SSH‐minus‐OBP can be used to evaluate satellite SSS quality.