GEOTRACES GP15 Water Mass Analysis

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract
A water mass analysis is a tool for interpreting the effect of ocean mixing on the distributions of trace elements and isotopes (TEIs) along an oceanographic transect. The GEOTRACES GP15 transect along 152°W covers a wide range in latitude from Alaska to Tahiti. We used a modified Optimum Multiparameter (OMP) analysis to determine the distributions of water masses with high importance to nutrient and hydrographic features on GEOTRACES GP15. In the thermocline, our results indicated the dominance of Pacific Subarctic Upper Water (PSUW) in the subpolar gyre, Eastern North Pacific Central Water (ENPCW) in the northern subpolar gyre, and Equatorial Subsurface Water (ESSW) in the equatorial region. South Pacific Subtropical Water (SPSTW) dominated the top of the thermocline in the southern subtropical gyre, while South Pacific Central Water (SPCW) dominated the lower thermocline. Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW), Equatorial Intermediate Water (EqIW), and North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW) in the southern hemisphere, equatorial region, and northern hemisphere, respectively, occupied waters just below the thermocline. Dominant water masses in the deep waters of the southern hemisphere include Upper Circumpolar Deep Water (UCDW) and Lower Circumpolar Deep Water (LCDW) with minimal contributions from Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW). Pacific Deep Water (PDW) dominated the deep water in the northern hemisphere. Our results align well with literature descriptions of these water masses and related circulation patterns.

Description

Type of resource Dataset, text
Date created January 25, 2022
Date modified January 25, 2022; December 5, 2022
Publication date January 25, 2022

Creators/Contributors

Author Lawrence, Rian
Contributor Shrikumar, Avanti
Contributor Le Roy, Emilie
Contributor Lam, Phoebe
Contributor Cutter, Gregory
Contributor Swift, James
Research team head Casciotti, Karen

Subjects

Subject GEOTRACES
Subject GP15
Subject water mass analysis
Subject Hydrography
Subject Pacific Ocean
Genre Data
Genre Documentation
Genre Tabular data
Genre Data sets
Genre Dataset
Genre Tables (data)

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User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
License
This work is licensed under an Open Data Commons Attribution License v1.0.

Preferred citation

Preferred citation
Lawrence, R., Shrikumar, A., Le Roy, E., and Casciotti, K. (2022). GEOTRACES GP15 Water Mass Analysis. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/tv301yr5579

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