Disclaimer: This material is being kept online for historical purposes. Though accurate at the time of publication, it is no longer being updated. The page may contain broken links or outdated information, and parts may not function in current web browsers. Visit the NASA Salinity website for more information.

Science Meetings

A Preliminary Evaluation of Upper-Ocean Heat and Salt Budgets During the SPURS Campaign
Farrar, J.T., Plueddemann, A.J., Kessler, W.S., Rainville, L., and Hodges, B.A. (27-Feb-14)

The Salinity Processes Upper-ocean Regional Study (SPURS) was a field campaign focused on understanding the physical processes acting to maintain the climatological sea surface salinity (SSS) maximum in the subtropical North Atlantic. An upper-ocean salinity budget provides a useful framework for guiding progress toward that goal. The SPURS measurement program included a heavily instrumented air-sea interaction mooring, which allows accurate estimates of the surface fluxes, and a dense array of measurements from moorings, Argo floats, and gliders. These data will be used to estimate terms in the upper-ocean salinity and heat budgets during the year-long SPURS campaign, with the goal of gaining insight into the physical processes important to the evolution and maintenance of the SSS maximum. Here we report preliminary air-sea flux estimates and the evolution of upper ocean heat and freshwater content from the air-sea interaction mooring.