Sea Surface Salinity's Response to Hurricanes as Revealed by Aquarius

While sea surface temperature's response to hurricanes are well known and have been documented by both observational data and model simulations, sea surface salinity's response to hurricanes remains unknown, mostly due to the lack of observational data. In situ sensors and platforms are usually not positioned in the right place and right time to reveal the oceanic response to hurricanes. Using the Aquarius data, this talk will describe the spatial structure and temporal evolution of sea surface salinity associated with the passage of a hurricane. Patterns and variations of surface wind, sea surface temperature and rainfall associated with this hurricane will be presented using Aquarius the other complementary in situ and satellite observations. Preliminary results to simulate sea surface salinity's response to hurricanes in a numerical 3-dimensional ocean model will also be discussed.