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Temperature-salinity and salinity-depth curves for the north Atlantic and north Pacific

University of British Columbia

Using historical data from the U.S. NODC Station Data II File, scatter diagrams of Temperature-Salinity [T-S] pairs and Salinity-Depth [S-Z] pairs were plotted for squares of 5° latitude by 5° longitude for the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans between 10°S and 60°N. Examination of the scatter plots indicates that the similarity between adjacent 5° squares is sufficient to allow the combination of the squares into larger areas described by a single T-S curve and a single S-Z curve. In this way, twenty-one T-S and S-Z areas (not coincident) are defined for the Pacific; thirteen T-S and fifteen S-Z areas are defined for the Atlantic. The data were edited on the basis of scatter plots; mean curves of the T-S, and S-Z relationships are presented together with standard deviations, indicative of the tightness of each curve. A discussion is presented of the uniqueness of each mean curve. The curves are examined in terms of their application to the characterization of water masses and to their use in inferring salinities for use in further computations. In northern latitudes the T-S relationship becomes non-single valued, but the S-Z relationship is well defined. Therefore, depending on the area of the ocean being examined, one method may be superior to the other for inferring salinity.

Text

2010-03-25

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/22501

Oceanography

University of British Columbia

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