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SMOS reveals the signature of Indian Ocean Dipole events

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Abstract

The tropical Indian Ocean experiences an interannual mode of climatic variability, known as the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). The signature of this variability in ocean salinity is hypothesized based on modeling and assimilation studies, on account of scanty observations. Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite has been designed to take up the challenge of sea surface salinity remote sensing. We show that SMOS data can be used to infer the pattern of salinity variability linked with the IOD events. The core of maximum variability is located in the central tropical basin, south of the equator. This region is anomalously salty during the 2010 negative IOD event, and anomalously fresh during the 2011 positive IOD event. The peak-to-peak anomaly exceeds one salinity unit, between late 2010 and late 2011. In conjunction with other observational datasets, SMOS data allow us to draw the salt budget of the area. It turns out that the horizontal advection is the main driver of salinity anomalies. This finding is confirmed by the analysis of the outputs of a numerical model. This study shows that the advent of SMOS makes it feasible the quantitative assessment of the mechanisms of ocean surface salinity variability in the tropical basins, at interannual timescales.

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Acknowledgements

Thermosalinograph data were collected and processed by the French SSS Observation Service (www.legos.obs-mip.fr/observations/sss). CNES partly funded these activities in the frame of the Centre Aval de Traitement des Données SMOS (CATDS) and of the SMOS TOSCA projects. The numerical model simulation was produced as part of the DRAKKAR project; we are grateful to Jean-Marc Molines and Bernard Barnier for their contribution. We are thankful to Thierry Delcroix and Clément de Boyer Montégut for fruitful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LEGOS, UMR 5566, CNRS-CNES-IRD-UPS, Université de Toulouse 3, 14 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31401, Toulouse, Cedex 09, France

    Fabien Durand & Gaël Alory

  2. LEGI, Domaine Universitaire, BP-53, 38041, Grenoble, Cedex 09, France

    Raphaël Dussin

  3. LOS, Ifremer, Centre Méditerranée, Zone Portuaire de Brégaillon, CS20 330, 83507, La Seyne-sur-Mer, Cedex, France

    Nicolas Reul

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  1. Fabien Durand
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  2. Gaël Alory
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  3. Raphaël Dussin
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  4. Nicolas Reul
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Correspondence to Fabien Durand.

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Responsible Editor: Anthony C. Hirst

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Durand, F., Alory, G., Dussin, R. et al. SMOS reveals the signature of Indian Ocean Dipole events. Ocean Dynamics 63, 1203–1212 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-013-0660-y

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