Water mass changes in the North and South Pacific Oceans between the 1960s and 1985-94 ...

• Main Author: Wong, APS
• Format: Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: University Of Tasmania 2023
• Subjects: Antarctic; Pacific; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25959/23243147; https://figshare.utas.edu.au/articles/thesis/Water_mass_changes_in_the_North_and_South_Pacific_Oceans_between_the_1960s_and_1985-94/23243147

Comparisons have been made along five modern hydrographic sections against historical hydro graphic data to investigate water mass changes in the North and South Pacific oceans. The five modern hydrographic sections were sampled in the decade 1985-94, while the historical data were mostly from the late 1960s. Below the seasonal mixed layer, statistically significant temporal differences in temperature and salinity have been detected in the water masses that occur in the top 2000 dbar of the water column. These differences in water mass properties are assumed to result from sea surface changes at the formation regions. Of all the water mass changes, the most spatially coherent ones come from the shallow salinity maxima of North Pacific Subtropical Water (NPSTW) and South Pacific Subtropical Water (SPSTW), and the intermediate salinity minima of North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW) and Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW). The two shallow salinity maxima, NPSTW and SPSTW, have shown signs of salinity ...