Identification

Title

Climatological annual cycle of the salinity budgets of the subtropical maxima

Abstract

Six subtropical salinity maxima (S-max) exist: two each in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Ocean basins. The north Indian (NI) S-max lies in the Arabian Sea while the remaining five lie in the open ocean. The annual cycle of evaporation minus precipitation (E - P) flux over the S-max is asymmetric about the equator. Over the Northern Hemisphere S-max, the semiannual harmonic is dominant (peaking in local summer and winter), while over the Southern Hemisphere S-max, the annual harmonic is dominant (peaking in local winter). Regardless, the surface layer salinity for all six S-max reaches a maximum in local fall and minimum in local spring. This study uses a multidecade integration of an eddy-resolving ocean circulation model to compute salinity budgets for each of the six S-max. The NI S-max budget is dominated by eddy advection related to the evolution of the seasonal monsoon. The five open-ocean S-max budgets reveal a common annual cycle of vertical diffusive fluxes that peak in winter. These S-max have regions on their eastward and poleward edges in which the vertical salinity gradient is destabilizing. These destabilizing gradients, in conjunction with wintertime surface cooling, generate a gradually deepening wintertime mixed layer. The vertical salinity gradient sharpens at the base of the mixed layer, making the water column susceptible to salt finger convection and enhancing vertical diffusive salinity fluxes out of the S-max into the ocean interior. This process is also observed in Argo float profiles and is related to the formation regions of subtropical mode waters.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7w66nh4

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-10-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact