[24-May-2017] Hormann, V., Centurioni, L., Maximenko, N., and Chao, Y.
Presented at the Global Ocean Salinity and the Water Cycle WorkshopThe salinity distribution in the world ocean is a poorly understood part of the global water cycle. To improve understanding of the role of near-surface currents in defining the salinity distribution and location of minimum salinity in the northeastern tropical Pacific, a Lagrangian drifter study with about half the drifters fitted with salinity sensors has been designed as part of the SPURS-2 experiment. First results of the ongoing drifter deployments in the eastern Pacific fresh pool under the ITCZ will be presented, highlighting the observed large spatiotemporal variability in near-surface circulation and sea surface salinity.