TY - JOUR T1 - Sea surface salinity as a proxy for Arctic Ocean freshwater changes A1 - Fournier,Severine A1 - Lee,Tong A1 - Wang,Xiaochun A1 - Armitage,Thomas W. K. A1 - Wang,Ou A1 - Fukumori,Ichiro A1 - Kwok,Ron AD - Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology Pasadena California, USA AD - Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering, University of California Los Angeles Los Angeles California, USA AD - Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland College Park Maryland ,USA UR - https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00630/74164/ DO - 10.1029/2020JC016110 KW - Arctic KW - sea surface height KW - gravimetry KW - sea surface salinity KW - freshwater N2 - The changing Arctic freshwater content and distribution have significant implications for ocean circulation, climate, and water and biogeochemical cycles. The paucity of in‐situ salinity measurements in the Arctic Ocean has limited our ability to study Arctic‐Ocean freshwater variability. Although satellite‐derived sea surface height (SSH) and ocean bottom pressure (OBP) have been used together to infer depth‐integrated freshwater content changes, these measurements are limited in sampling and resolution. Motivated by the recent development of sea surface salinity (SSS) remote sensing, we explore the use of SSS as a proxy for Arctic freshwater changes. As a first step, here we conduct a proof‐of‐concept study by analyzing the output of an ocean‐ice state estimation product. We find that SSS variations are coherent with those of SSH‐minus‐OBP across the Arctic basin (with R ~ ‐0.8) except for in the center of the Beaufort Gyre and the region affected by the subpolar North Atlantic inflow. On Arctic shelves, the linear regression coefficient between SSS and SSH‐minus‐OBP is ‐0.3 pss/cm or larger in magnitude. The results suggest that SSS is a good proxy for Arctic freshwater changes, and satellite SSH‐minus‐OBP can be used to evaluate satellite SSS quality. Y1 - 2020/07 PB - American Geophysical Union (AGU) JF - Journal Of Geophysical Research-oceans SN - 2169-9275 VL - 125 IS - 7 ID - 74164 ER -