FN Archimer Export Format PT J TI Interannual surface salinity in Northwest Atlantic shelf BT AF GRODSKY, Semyon A. REUL, Nicolas CHAPRON, Bertrand CARTON, James A. BRYAN, Frank O. AS 1:1;2:2;3:2;4:1;5:3; FF 1:;2:PDG-ODE-LOPS-SIAM;3:PDG-ODE-LOPS-SIAM;4:;5:; C1 Univ Maryland, Dept Atmospher & Ocean Sci, College Pk, MD 20742 USA. Inst Francais Rech & Exploitat Mer, Plouzane, France. Natl Ctr Atmospher Res, Climate & Global Dynam Lab, POB 3000, Boulder, CO 80307 USA. C2 UNIV MARYLAND, USA IFREMER, FRANCE NCAR NATL CTR ATMOSPHER RES, USA SI TOULON BREST SE PDG-ODE-LOPS-SIAM UM LOPS IN WOS Ifremer jusqu'en 2018 copubli-int-hors-europe IF 2.711 TC 25 UR https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00376/48736/49100.pdf LA English DT Article DE ;salinity;interannual;satellite AB Sea surface salinity (SSS) from the Aquarius and SMOS satellite missions displays a steady increase of ~1psu over the entire northwestern Atlantic shelf south of Nova Scotia during the 2011-2015. Put in the context of longer ocean profile data the results suggest that mixed layer salinity and temperature north of the Gulf Stream experience positively correlated shelf-wide interannual oscillations (1psu/2degC). Salty and warm events occur coincident with anomalous easterly-southeasterly winds and Ekman transport counteracting the mean southwestward shelf currents. They are coincident with the weakening of both branches of the Scotian Shelf Current (SSC), but only moderately correlate with shifts of the Gulf Stream North Wall. This suggests that salt advection by anomalous SSC acting on the mean salinity gradient is the primary driver regulating the transport of fresh/cold water from high latitudes. The advection mechanism imposes a connectedness of the larger-scale interannual variability in this region and its tie to atmospheric oscillations. In the second part, an analysis of 15-year long numerical simulations is presented which show 8 interannual salinity oscillations (positive and negative). Six of these are driven by the horizontal advection by slow varying currents (>2 months), while 2 events are driven by the horizontal eddy advection (<2 months). In line with observations, salt/warm model events correspond to anomalously weak SSC, correlate with southeasterly wind anomaly, and confirm that interannual horizontal salt advection drives the interannual salinity. Indeed, vertical exchanges provide a negative feedback, while interannual horizontal diffusion and the net surface salt flux anomalies are small. PY 2017 PD MAY SO Journal Of Geophysical Research-oceans SN 2169-9275 PU Amer Geophysical Union VL 122 IS 5 UT 000404363600008 BP 3638 EP 3659 DI 10.1002/2016JC012580 ID 48736 ER EF