Éditeur(s) : Amer Geophysical Union
Résumé : The freshest surface waters in the tropical Pacific are found at its eastern boundary. Using in situ observations, we depict the quasi-permanent presence of a far eastern Pacific fresh pool with Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) lower than 33, which is confined between Panama's west coast and 85W in December and extends westward to 95W in April. Strong SSS fronts are found at the outer edge of this fresh pool. We investigate the seasonal dynamics of the fresh pool using complementary satellite wind, rain, sea level and in situ oceanic current data at the surface, along with hydrographic profiles. The fresh pool appears off Panama due to the strong summer rains associated with the northward migration of the ITCZ over Central America in June. During the second half of the year, the eastward-flowing North Equatorial Counter Current keeps it trapped to the coast and strengthens the SSS front on its western edge. During winter, as the ITCZ moves southward, the north-easterly Panama gap wind creates a south-westward jet-like current in its path with a dipole of Ekman pumping/eddies on its flanks. As a result, upwelling in the Panama Bight brings to the surface cold and salty waters which erode the fresh pool on its eastern side while both the jet current and the enhanced South Equatorial Current stretch the fresh pool westward until it nearly disappears in May. New SMOS satellite SSS data proves able to capture the main seasonal features of the fresh pool and monitor its spatial extent.
Journal Of Geophysical Research-oceans (0148-0227) (Amer Geophysical Union), 2012-04 , Vol. 117 , P. -

Droits : 2012 AGU
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00072/18311/16581.pdf
DOI:10.1029/2011JC007802
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00072/18311/

Éditeur(s) : Springer
Résumé : While it is well known that the ocean is one of the most important component of the climate system, with a heat capacity 1,100 times greater than the atmosphere, the ocean is also the primary reservoir for freshwater transport to the atmosphere and largest component of the global water cycle. Two new satellite sensors, the ESA Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) and the NASA Aquarius SAC-D missions, are now providing the first space-borne measurements of the sea surface salinity (SSS). In this paper, we present examples demonstrating how SMOS-derived SSS data are being used to better characterize key land–ocean and atmosphere–ocean interaction processes that occur within the marine hydrological cycle. In particular, SMOS with its ocean mapping capability provides observations across the world’s largest tropical ocean fresh pool regions, and we discuss from intraseasonal to interannual precipitation impacts as well as large-scale river runoff from the Amazon–Orinoco and Congo rivers and its offshore advection. Synergistic multi-satellite analyses of these new surface salinity data sets combined with sea surface temperature, dynamical height and currents from altimetry, surface wind, ocean color, rainfall estimates, and in situ observations are shown to yield new freshwater budget insight. Finally, SSS observations from the SMOS and Aquarius/SAC-D sensors are combined to examine the response of the upper ocean to tropical cyclone passage including the potential role that a freshwater-induced upper ocean barrier layer may play in modulating surface cooling and enthalpy flux in tropical cyclone track regions.
Surveys In Geophysics (0169-3298) (Springer), 2014-05 , Vol. 35 , N. 3 , P. 681-722

Droits : Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00152/26334/24430.pdf
DOI:10.1007/s10712-013-9244-0
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00152/26334/