A New Method to Estimate Water Mass Fractions and Remineralization Ratios

We present a new method of water mass analysis that accounts for the nonlinear relationships in nutrient concentration observations. This method simultaneously solves for the fractions of different water masses and for the Redfield stoichiometry of remineralization at a given location. Performance is compared to the Optimum Multiparameter (OMP) technique using an extensive pseudodata analysis in which the mixing and remineralization of up to four endmembers from a set of 15 major water masses is simulated. The technique also produces confidence intervals that express the uncertainty due to water mass property characterization. Results for the subtropical Indian ocean using data from the WOCE/JGOFS program are presented.