Comparing the steric height in the Northern Atlantic with satellite altimetry

• Main Authors: Ivchenko, V. O., Danilov, S. D., Sidorenko, D. V., Schröter, J., Wenzel, M., Aleynik, D. L.
• Other Authors: Department of Bentho-pelagic processes, Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung = Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research = Institut Alfred-Wegener pour la recherche polaire et marine (AWI), Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft = Helmholtz Association-Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft = Helmholtz Association, Plymouth University
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2007
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00298349; https://hal.science/hal-00298349/document; https://hal.science/hal-00298349/file/os-3-485-2007.pdf

International audience Anomalies of dynamic height derived from an analysis of Argo profiling buoys data are analysed to assess the relative roles of contributions from temperature and salinity over the North Atlantic for the period of 1999?2004. They are compared with dynamic topography anomalies based on TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason altimetry. It is shown that the halosteric contribution to the anomalies of dynamic height is comparable in magnitude to the thermosteric one over the period analyzed. Taking both salinity and temperature into account improves the agreement between zonally averaged trends in the satellite dynamic topography and dynamic height increasing the correlation between them to 0.73 from 0.63 when only temperature variability is taken into account. The implication of this result is that the salinity contribution cannot be neglected in the North Atlantic and that one cannot rely on estimating the thermosteric part by anomalies in the sea surface dynamic topography derived from the satellite altimetry.