Further correcting pressure effects on SBE911 CTD-conductivity data from hadal depths

Abstract

Hadal, > 6000 m deep shipborne Sea-Bird Electronics SBE 911plus Conductivity Temperature Depth (CTD) data are obtained using two different systems in the vicinity of the Earth’s deepest point, in the Challenger Deep, Mariana Trench 14 years apart. Below 7000 m in very weakly density stratified waters, the salinity data from both sets show an artificial increase with depth of about 10–6 g kg−1 m−1 that is not covered by the SBE linear pressure correction to the conductivity data. With the aid of independent water sample data, salinity is corrected and an additional algorithm for the pressure correction on conductivity data is formulated. The corrected salinity data still weakly increase with depth, together with a decrease in temperature, which may point at an influx of dense modified Antarctic bottom water. The corrected density variations with depth are used in calculations of deep turbulence values.