Using Remotely Sensed Sea Surface Salinity and Colored Detrital Matter to Characterize Freshened Surface Layers in the Kara and Laptev Seas during the Ice-Free Season

• Published in: Remote Sensing
• Main Authors: Marta Umbert, Carolina Gabarro, Estrella Olmedo, Rafael Gonçalves-Araujo, Sebastien Guimbard, Justino Martinez
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021
• Subjects: arctic; freshwater fluxes; remote sensing; physical oceanography; sea surface salinity; ocean color; Science; Q; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; laptev; Phytoplankton
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13193828; https://doaj.org/article/7f7372493d0b49c199652d06f0133368

The overall volume of freshwater entering the Arctic Ocean has been growing as glaciers melt and river runoff increases. Since 1980, a 20% increase in river runoff has been observed in the Arctic system. As the discharges of the Ob, Yenisei, and Lena rivers are an important source of freshwater in the Kara and Laptev Seas, an increase in river discharge might have a significant impact on the upper ocean circulation. The fresh river water mixes with ocean water and forms a large freshened surface layer (FSL), which carries high loads of dissolved organic matter and suspended matter into the Arctic Ocean. Optically active material (e.g., phytoplankton and detrital matter) are spread out into plumes, which are evident in satellite data. Russian river signatures in the Kara and Laptev Seas are also evident in recent SMOS Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) Arctic products. In this study, we compare the new Arctic+ SSS products, produced at the Barcelona Expert Center, with the Ocean Color absorption coefficient of colored detrital matter (CDM) in the Kara and Laptev Seas for the period 2011–2019. The SSS and CDM are found to be strongly negatively correlated in the regions of freshwater influence, with regression coefficients between <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>0.72</mn></mrow></semantics></math> and <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>0.91</mn></mrow></semantics></math> in the studied period. Exploiting this linear correlation, we estimate the SSS back to 1998 using two techniques: one assuming that the relationship between the CDM and SSS varies regionally in the river-influenced areas, and another assuming that it does not. We use the 22-year time-series of reconstructed SSS to estimate the interannual variability of the extension of the FSL in the Kara and Laptev Seas as well ...