Salinity Variations in the Southern California Current*

Abstract

Abstract Hydrographic observations southwestward of the Southern California Bight in the period 1937–99 show that temperature and salinity variations have very different interannual variability. Temperature varies within and above the thermocline and is correlated with climate indices of El Niño, the Pacific decadal oscillation, and local upwelling. Salinity variability is largest in the surface layers of the offshore salinity minimum and is characterized by decadal-time-scale changes. The salinity anomalies are independent of temperature, of heave of the pycnocline, and of the climate indices. Calculations demonstrate that long-shore anomalous geostrophic advection of the mean salinity gradient accumulates along the mean southward trajectory along the California Current and produces the observed salinity variations. The flow anomalies for this advective process are independent of large-scale climate indices. It is hypothesized that low-frequency variability of the California Current system results from unresolved, small-scale atmospheric forcing or from the ocean mesoscale upstream of the Southern California Bight.