Romero, E., E., Portela, L., Tenorio-Fernández & L., Sánchez-Velasco (2024). Detection of coherent thermohaline structures over the global ocean using clustering. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. 209: 104344. DOI: 10.1016/j.dsr.2024.104344.
Emmanuel Romero 1, Esther Portela 2, Leonardo Tenorio-Fernández 3 y Laura Sánchez-Velasco 1
The classification of the ocean in water masses withsimilar physical and/or biogeochemical characteristics provides an idealframework for an efficient monitoring of the change in ocean properties.Particularly, the combination of the seawater temperature and salinity set the stratificationof the water column and impacts ocean circulation, with important implicationsfor the surface-to-interior propagation of climate signals. The objective ofthis study is to find spatially coherent thermohaline structuresin different regions of the global ocean, as well as theirlink with regional dynamics. To this end, we apply clustering techniques toidentify water masses delimited by coherent thermohaline structures atdifferent spatial scales over the global ocean. The clustering technique knownas K-mean was used with a wide range of kvalues for conservative temperature and absolute salinity profiles of theentire ocean. Our analysis revealed the impact of the main dynamical oceanicstructures (such as ocean fronts, currents, or regions of sluggish circulation)on the vertical thermohaline component. We present three cases of study, theCalifornia Current System, the Southern Ocean,and the Eastern Tropical Latitudes, where we could identify regions with commonthermohaline characteristics (despite being from different ocean basins), aswell as to identify seasonal changes and anomalous profiles. This method makesit possible to reduce the dimensionality of the water column, and allows forthe establishment of regional limits driven by their vertical thermohalinestructure instead of more rigid, and not always appropriate geographicalborders. This has potential important applications for the monitoring andprediction of ocean variability in the context of a rapidly changing climate.
Palabras clave: Thermohaline structures; Absolute salinity; Conservative temperature; Profiles Clustering; Global ocean
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