Contribution of satellite sea surface salinity to the estimation of liquid freshwater content in the Beaufort Sea

Abstract

Abstract. The hydrography of the Arctic Ocean has experienced profound changes over the last 2 decades. The sea ice extent has declined by more than 10 % per decade, and its liquid freshwater content has increased mainly due to glaciers and sea ice melting. Further, new satellite retrievals of sea surface salinity (SSS) in the Arctic might contribute to better characterizing the freshwater changes in cold regions. Ocean salinity and freshwater content are intimately related such that an increase (decrease) in one entails a decrease (increase) in the other. In this work, we evaluate the freshwater content in the Beaufort Gyre using surface salinity measurements from the satellite radiometric mission Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) and TOPAZ4b reanalysis salinity at depth, estimating the freshwater content from 2011 to 2019 and validating the results with in situ measurements. The results highlight the underestimation of the freshwater content using reanalysis data in the Beaufort Sea and a clear improvement in the freshwater content estimation when adding satellite sea surface salinity measurements in the mixed layer. The improvements are significant, with up to a 70 % reduction in bias in areas near the ice melting. Our research demonstrates how remotely sensed salinity can assist us in better monitoring the changes in the Arctic freshwater content and understanding key processes related to salinity variations that cause density differences with potential to influence the global circulation system that regulates Earth's climate.