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Salinity Processes in the Upper Ocean Regional Study (SPURS)
 

An increasing appreciation for the essential role of the ocean in the global water cycle, and the upcoming launch of the salinity sensing satellites SMOS and Aquarius, have provided the motivation to consider plans for an upper-ocean freshwater field campaign in the salinity maximum region of the North Atlantic. A White Paper has outlined some initial ideas, but thoughts about the salinity field program have continued to evolve, and will be further refined by this meeting. As reflected in the agenda below, we are advocating more of a spatially nested structure in both the observational and model approaches. The large scale is the entire subtropical regime and its relationship to the AMOC; the regional scale ~1000 km, represents the salty subtropical convergence regime; the small scale ~100 km (comparable to the Aquarius footprint) investigates the details of the sub-mesoscale physical processes affecting the surface layer and subduction of the S-max water. Perhaps the closest analog to the envisioned 2012 salinity program is TOGA-COARE.

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