Interannual surface salinity on Northwest Atlantic shelf

The advection mechanism imposes a connectedness of the larger-scale interannual variability in this region and its tie to atmospheric oscillations. In the second part, an analysis of 15 year-long numerical simulations is presented which show eight interannual salinity oscillations (positive and negative). Six of these are driven by horizontal advection by slow varying currents (>2 months), while two events are driven by horizontal eddy advection (<2 months).

In line with observations, salt/warm model events correspond to anomalously weak SSC, correlate with southeasterly wind anomaly, and confirm that interannual horizontal salt advection drives interannual salinity. Indeed, vertical exchanges provide negative feedback, while interannual horizontal diffusion and the net surface salt flux anomalies are small.