Precipitation Signatures in Sea-Surface-Layer Conditions During BOMEX

Abstract

Observations were made during the Barbados Oceanographic and Meteorological Experiment in 1969 to evaluate the possibility of determining total precipitation from the change in salinity or temperature at the ocean surface. Salinity-temperature-depth soundings were taken at 3-hr intervals during periods of no rain, and at 5- to 6-min intervals during periods of rain. Analysis of salinity data shows that during periods of no rain, salinity regularly fluctuated by ±0.15?. Fluctuations of this magnitude are likely to obscure possible salinity depressions due to rainfall. No rainfall-related, long-term depressions of salinity depressions were evident. However, many sharp, short-term depressions of salinity, with duration on the order of 10 to 45 min, were observed during periods of rainfall.