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Importance of the Equatorial Undercurrent on the Sea Surface Salinity in the Eastern Equatorial Atlantic in boreal spring

posted Jan 16, 2017, 1:08 AM by Salinity CERSAT
Figure 1. a) Satellite-SST distribution during July showing the spatial extend of the equatorial Atlantic Cold tongue (ACT) region. Contours represent 23, 24 and 25°C isotherms. b) Seasonal evolution of the SSS (blue lines) and the SST (red lines) for the satellite observations and the model in the ACT (box marked in a). The seasonal cycle of the SSS and the SST is computed from the 2010-2012 period. Units are for a) °C and b) SSS (PSS) and SST (°C)


A paper by Da-Allada et al. (2016)  explains the lag between maximum sea surface salinity (SSS) and minimum sea surface temperature (SST) in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean.  This relation has been observed but has remained unexplained. Using satellite observations of SSS, the papers shows how upwelling dynamics influence this relation throughout the year.

See more at http://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/article/10.1002/2016JC012342/editor-highlight/

Da-Allada, C. Y., Jouanno, J., Gaillard, F., Kolodziejczyk, N., Maes, C., Reul, N. and Bourlès, B. (2016), Importance of the Equatorial Undercurrent on the Sea Surface Salinity in the Eastern Equatorial Atlantic in boreal spring. J. Geophys. Res. Oceans. Accepted Author Manuscript. doi:10.1002/2016JC012342
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