Articles | Volume 17, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-463-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-463-2021
Research article
 | 
15 Mar 2021
Research article |  | 15 Mar 2021

Water masses in the Atlantic Ocean: characteristics and distributions

Mian Liu and Toste Tanhua

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Cited articles

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Alvarez, M., Brea, S., Mercier, H., and Alvarez-Salgado, X. A.: Mineralization of biogenic materials in the water masses of the South Atlantic Ocean. I: Assessment and results of an optimum multiparameter analysis, Prog. Oceanogr. 123, 1–23, 2014. 
Andrié, C., Gouriou, Y., Bourlès, B., Ternon, J. F., Braga, E. S., Morin, P., and Oudot, C.: Variability of AABW properties in the equatorial channel at 35 W, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30, https://doi.org/10.1029/2002GL015766, 2003. 
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Arhan, M. and King, B.: Lateral Mixing of the Mediterranean Water in the Eastern North-Atlantic, J. Mar. Res., 53, 865–895, 1995. 
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Short summary
We have characterized the major water masses in the Atlantic Ocean based on the properties found in their formation areas using six properties taken from the GLODAPv2 data product, including both conservative (conservative temperature and absolute salinity) and non-conservative (oxygen, silicate, phosphate and nitrate) properties. The distributions of the water masses are estimated by using the optimum multi-parameter (OMP) model, and we have mapped the distributions of the water masses.